Aer Lualdi L.59

The Aer Lualdi L.59 was an Italian helicopter that failed to reach production.

It was the culmination of work done by Carlo Lualdi throughout the 1950s, and was an enlarged version of his earlier two-seat designs. The L.59 featured four seats accommodated in an extensively glazed cabin. Of conventional pod-and-boom design with skid landing gear, the aircraft had the slightly unusual feature of having its engine mounted in the nose, turning the main rotor by a long driveshaft that reached through the cabin.

Lualdi was able to interest Macchi in the design and two Macchi-built prototypes began flight tests in 1960. Civil certification was achieved in August the following year. Although faultless, the performance of the L.59 was not comparable with that of other helicopters on the market at the time. Macchi planned an initial production batch of 50 machines, but only a single example was sold - one of the prototypes was purchased by the Italian Army for evaluation purposes. No order resulted.

pecifications (L.59)

General characteristics

* Crew: one, pilot
* Capacity: three passengers
* Length: 9.08 m (29 ft 9 in)
* Main rotor diameter: 10.60 m (34 ft 9 in)
* Height: 3.00 m (9 ft 10 in)
* Main rotor area: 88.2 m² (950 ft²)
* Empty: 740 kg (1,631 lb)
* Loaded: kg ( lb)
* Maximum takeoff: 1,200 kg (2,646 lb)
* Powerplant: 1x Continental IO-470-D, 194 kW (260 hp)

Performance

* Maximum speed: 160 km/h (100 mph)
* Range: 485 km (303 miles)
* Service ceiling: 5,900 m (19,355 ft)
* Rate of climb: 250 m/min (820 ft/min)
* Wing loading: kg/m² ( lb/ft²)
* Power/Mass: kW/kg ( hp/lb)