| Rotorway "Elete" 1954 |  |
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| Rotorway "Elete" 1954 | |
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With design concepts evolving again in the late 80's, RotorWay created the "Elete", a larger, attractive two-place helicopter which showed a lot of promise, yet presented once more the numerous difficulties associated with a new model. The "Elete" had an RW 152, water-cooled, dual electronic, 4-stroke engine that provided 152 horsepower with a pilot and passenger payload of 180kg. Normal cruise was 180km/h with maximum airspeed of 210km/h. Under a separate company, there was also even a prototype development of a four-place helicopter called the Windstar that simply proved to be far too costly. The development costs for further research and testing were also running more expensive than a small company could absorb and the project was soon dropped. After selling three "Elete" helicopters, the company finally succumbed to financial challenges and was soon purchased by a former customer, John Netherwood, a businessman from England. The new company recognized the design hurdles of the "Elete" and promptly set out to address making the proven "Exec" model a better aircraft to sell. With invaluable input from the employees themselves, the work began.
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