The Flettner 184 was a German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 night reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

 and anti-submarine autogyro

Autogyro

An autogyro , also known as gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane, is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust...

 developed during the 1930s.

Design

Its designer, Anton Flettner

Anton Flettner

Anton Flettner was a German aviation engineer and inventor. He made important contributions to airplane and helicopter design...

, designed the Fl 184 to have a single, torqueless rotor. This was done with two 30 hp (22 kW) engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...

s that drove small propeller

Propeller (aircraft)

Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...

s attached to the rotor blades. The Fl 184 was a two-seat autogyro with an enclosed cabin. The Fl 184 rotors had a length of 12 m and a cyclic pitch

Flight dynamics

Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...

 control system. The aircraft's power was supplied by a 140 hp Siemens-Halske Sh 14 radial engine that drove a two-bladed wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

en propeller.

History

The history of the Fl 184 is quite short. There was only one Flettner 184 built that had the registration

Aircraft registration

An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...

 D-EDVE. The Fl 184 was scheduled to be tested for night reconnaissance in late 1936. However, before these tests could take place, it caught fire whilst in flight and crashed.

After the crash the entire program was considered a write-off and no more aircraft were manufactured.

Specifications

• Engine type: One Siemens-Halske Sh 14
  Siemens-Halske Sh 14
  -References:* Becker, E. Siemens Jahrbuch 1928: Flugzeugmotoren der Siemens & Halske AG, reproduced on * http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/Duxford/germaer1.htm...
  
  Radial
• Engine power: 140 hp (104 kW)