"Rocky" wrote in message
om...
(Jeremy Thomson) wrote in message
om...
I'm not aware of any tip-jet helicopters that have made it into
production.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The french had one in the 60's called a Djin. I saw one flying in
South Africa where they were trying to adapt it for agricultural
flying in the Cape Province. It was never very popular nor successful.

The Djiin was a very successful crop spraying aircraft in the UK and France.
During the sixties and early seventies a group of them from the company
SEPATOM (I think) started the year working their way up from the south of
France spraying vines with Bordeaux mixture. Then they came to the UK and
sprayed the potatoes in Lincolnshire and Lancashire with Maneb.
About '72 BEAS Helicopters, Oxford, bought eight of them and used them for a
good few years before they switched to Bell 47s. They were cheap to run and
easy to fly but eventually shortage of spares grounded them.
Starting them was great fun, if you were fit. They had a great big handle
out the side to wind up the turbine! No electric start you see, in fact no
electric's!

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