Ejection seat that converts to a jet powered gyrocopter.

[Galane]

If you want to try something really Kerbal, there's Kaman's ejection seat that would convert into a jet powered gyroplane, the Stowable Aircrew Vehicle Escape Rotorseat or SAVER.

Concept drawing. Photos I can find all show it mounted to a test frame with wheels and other things attached.

The side rails and plates of the seat flip back to form tail booms and rudders. The small jet folds back for thrust and the rotor blades telescope out, most likely the rotor mount flips up from behind the seat. I assume that altitude control was mainly via throttle. Being a gyrocopter, landing would be simple. Cut the throttle and let it autorotate down. No danger of the rotor stopping because it's airflow through it that makes it spin.

Edited February 10, 2015 by Galane

[Azimech]

We'll need IR for that. Otherwise, too big, too heavy, too many parts.

[Jon144]

I've had issues with gyro copters. I've never been able to make a bearing for one strong enough to work. Generally the outside power source that pushes the gyro copter simply wants to tear the rotors from their bearing instead of spinning them. I'm sure with more experimentation there would be some limited degree of success.

That being said making a strong enough bearing and making it that small would be nearly impossible.

Edited February 10, 2015 by Jon144

[Galane]

Tonight I made a dual rotor, jet driven gyrocopter. Got it to be pretty stable and it pops off the runway very quickly at half throttle. http://pastebin.com/Gw4dwm5t

Landing it, uh, yeah. Might be able to do it manually. I got Spaceplane Guidance to crash it once without killing Jeb. Knocked one rotor completely off and two blades off the other. The pastebinned one is the last revision of a large number of revisions. Might be a bit bendy without KJR. All stock parts except for the IR free spinning docking washers.

First I tried a single rotor but for some reason the movement through the air only spins the rotors at a slow speed. With a single rotor it gets retreating blade stall at the slow RPM.

It holds altitude and heading with SAS or MechJeb's spaceplane guidance. Doesn't handle too bad with manual piloting. Proof of concept but without having rotor blades that will windmill a lot faster it's not too practical.

Until this last revision they all had poor roll stability. This one has the rotors tilted inward a little, and with the four ailerons it's much less rocky in the roll axis. Still wants to dive, smack the runway, bounce, flip on its side and explode when landing. Probably should put a parachute on the radial attachment part but nobody at Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging knows how to sew.

screenshot24 by g_alan_e, on Flickr

screenshot23 by g_alan_e, on Flickr

Edited February 10, 2015 by Galane