The Nord 500 Cadet was an experimental aircraft developed
by the French company Nord in the late 1960s.
The Nord 500 Cadet was a single-seat ducted-fan powered
machine designed to help in the development of VTOL aircraft.
The rather ugly-looking Nord 500 featured two 317-horsepower
Allison T63 turbines which drove the large diameter propellors
within the ducted shrouds. The ducts could be turned to
the horizontal position for vertical lift during takeoff
and landing, and then rotated to the vertical position
for forward flight. Directional control of the Nord 500
during vertical flight was done by small winglets attached
to the bottom of each duct. During forward flight the
aircraft was controlled using a conventional rudder/elevator
tail setup.
The Nord 500 Cadet was 22 ft (6.6 m) long and 20 ft (6.1
m) wide. It weighed only 2,750 lb (1,250 kgs).
The first Nord 500 was finished in the beginning of 1967,
it was used for a variety of mechanical and ground tests.
In July of 1968 a second prototype made its first tethered
flight. There were never any free flights made, so the
designer's target of a 220 mph (350 km/h) top speed were
never tested.
Later Nord merged with the Aerospatiale Corporation and
it was renamed the Aerospatiale N 500. A more powerful
and advanced version of the aircraft was planned, however
it never materialized, and by 1971 the project was canceled.
Similar and related vehicles:
Bell X-22
Bell X-14
Canadair CL-84 Dynavert
Hiller X-18
Ryan XV-5 Vertifan
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