Dornier P 410

The Dornier P 410 was a project design by the German maker Dornier for an anti-tank and escort helicopter, a forerunner of the Eurocopter Tiger. In 1968 the Federal Ministry of Defence asked three firms, Bölkow, Dornier and Merckle, to develop an anti-tank helicopter, and Dornier was to design it and work out a design evaluation procedure with the other two, aiming at one common design. Dornier studied a hot gas rotor version like the Do 132 and three mechanically driven versions; the mechanically driven version with low disc loading was chosen and named P 410. It was a slim tandem-seat helicopter with stub wings of 8 metres span, a downward fin and a rear rotor working as a pusher propeller with cyclic control, a semi-rigid four-blade main rotor in the Bo 105 manner, and two Lycoming T53 shaft turbines of 1,420 shaft horsepower each. The stub wings were to unload the rotor for speeds up to 450 kilometres per hour. Dornier and Merckle gave up helicopter development in early 1970, and only Bölkow, later MBB, continued.