Acknowledgement

I thank and praise the God Almighty for all the grace showered on me, throughout the course of my project. With great esteem and gratitude, I thank Prof. Ciby Thomas , Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, RIT, for permitting me to do this projectand allocating me all the facilities in the department, which in turn offered me an impressive learning experience. I am immensely indebted to my guide Mr. Antony J K ,Asst. Professor , Department of Mechanical Engineering, RIT , whose constant motivation and time bound guidance helped me towards the successful pursuit of my project. I am really grateful for his guidance. With great reverence, I express my thanks to Mr. Manoj , Asst professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering , RIT, for his blessings . I am indebted to my family and friends for their valuable prayers, support and encouragement throughout my study. The successful completion of this project is the outcome of the effort and sincerity of all those who are associated with the project.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Gyrocopters

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. While similar to a helicopter rotor in appearance, the autogyro's rotor must have air flowing through the rotor disc to generate rotation. Invented by the Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva to create an aircraft that could fly safely at slow speeds, the autogyro was first flown on 9 January 1923, at Cuatro Vientos Airfield in Madrid. De la Cierva's aircraft resembled the fixed-wing aircraft of the day, with a front-mounted engine and propeller in a tractor configuration to pull the aircraft through the air. Under license from Cierva in the 1920s and 1930s, the Pitcairn & Kellett companies made further innovations. Latemodel autogyros patterned after Igor Bensens designs feature a rear-mounted engine and propeller in a pusher configuration. The term Autogiro was a trademark of the Cierva Autogiro Company, and the term Gyrocopter was used by E. Burke Wilford who developed the Reiseler Kreiser feathering rotor equipped gyroplane in the first half of the twentieth century. The latter term was later adopted as a trademark by Bensen Aircraft.

History
Juan de la Cierva was a Spanish engineer and aeronautical enthusiast. In 1921, he participated in a design competition to develop a bomber for the Spanish military. De la Cierva designed a three-engined aircraft, but during an early test flight, the bomber stalled and crashed. De la Cierva was troubled by the stall phenomenon and vowed to develop an aircraft that could fly safely at low airspeeds. The result was the first successful rotorcraft, which he named Autogiro in 1923. De la Cierva's autogyro used an airplane fuselage with a forward-mounted propeller and engine, a rotor mounted on a mast, and a horizontal and vertical stabilizer.

Early development
La Cierva's first three designs were unstable because of aerodynamic and structural deficiencies in their rotors. His fourth design, made the first documented flight of an autogyro on 17 January 1923, Spain (9 January according to Cierva). De la Cierva had fitted the rotor with flapping hinges to attach each rotor blade to the hub. The flapping

hinges allowed each rotor blade to flap, or move up and down, to compensate for dissymmetry of lift , the difference in lift produced between the right and left sides of the rotor as the autogyro moves forward. Three days later, the engine failed shortly after takeoff and the aircraft descended slowly and steeply to a safe landing, validating De la Cierva's efforts to produce an aircraft that could be flown safely at low airspeeds. De la Cierva's early autogyros were fitted with fixed rotor hubs, small fixed wings, and control surfaces like those of a fixed-wing aircraft. At low airspeeds, the control surfaces became ineffective and could readily lead to loss of control, particularly during landing. In response, Cierva developed a direct control rotor hub, which could be tilted in any direction by the pilot. In 1927 Engelbert Zaschka, a pioneering German engineer, invented a combined helicopter and autogyro. The principal advantage of the Zaschka machine is in its ability to remain motionless in the air for any length of time and to descend in a vertical line, so that a landing may be accomplished on the flat roof of a large house. In appearance, the machine does not differ much from the ordinary monoplane, but the carrying wings revolve around the body.. Development of the autogyro continued in search for a means to accelerate the rotor prior to takeoff (called prerotating). Rotor drives initially took the form of a rope wrapped around the rotor axle and then pulled by a team of men to accelerate the rotor this was followed by a long taxi to bring the rotor up to speed sufficient for takeoff. The next innovation was flaps on the tail to redirect the propeller slipstream into the rotor while on the ground. This design was first tested in 1929. Efforts in 1930 had shown that development of a light and efficient mechanical transmission was not a trivial undertaking. But in 1932, the Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, United States, finally solved the problem with a transmission driven by the engine.

World War II
The Avro Rota autogyro was used by the Royal Air Force to calibrate the coastal radar stations during and after the Battle of Britain In World War II, Germany pioneered a very small gyroglider rotor kite, the FockeAchgelis Fa 330 "Bachstelze" (Water-wagtail), towed by U-boats to provide aerial surveillance. The Imperial Japanese Army developed the Kayaba Ka-1 Autogyro for reconnaissance, artillery-spotting, and anti-submarine uses. The Ka-1 was based on the Kellett KD-1 first imported to Japan in 1938. The craft was initially developed for use as an observation

platform and for artillery spotting duties. The Army liked the craft's short take-off span, and especially its low maintenance requirements. In 1941 production began, with the machines assigned to artillery units for spotting the fall of shells. These carried two crewmen: a pilot and a spotter.

Post War Developments

The autogyro was resurrected after World War II when Dr. Igor Bensen, a Russian immigrant in the USA, saw a captured German U-Boat's Fa 330 gyroglider and was fascinated by its characteristics. At work he was tasked with the analysis of the British military "Rotachute" gyro glider designed by expatriate Austrian Raoul Hafner. This led him to adapt the design for his own purposes and eventually market the B-7. Bensen submitted an improved version, the Bensen B-8M, for testing to the United States Air Force, which designated it the X-25. The B-8M was designed to use surplus McCulloch engines used on flying unmanned target drones. Ken Wallis developed a miniature autogyro craft, the Wallis autogyro in England in the 1960s, and autogyros built similar to Wallis' design appeared for a number of years. Ken Wallis' designs have been used in various scenarios including military training, police reconnaissance, and in another case a search for the Loch Ness Monster

Development of Bensen Autogyro

The autogyro was resurrected after World War II when Dr. Igor Bensen, a Russian immigrant in the USA, saw a captured German U-Boat's Fa 330 gyroglider and was fascinated by its characteristics. At work he was tasked with the analysis of the British military "Rotachute" gyro glider designed by expatriate Austrian Raoul Hafner. This led him to adapt the design for his own purposes and eventually market the B-7. Bensen submitted an improved version, the Bensen B-8M, for testing to the United States Air Force, which designated it the X-25. The B-8M was designed to use surplus McCulloch engines used on flying unmanned target drones. The basic Bensen Gyrocopter design is a simple frame of square aluminium or galvanized steel tubing, reinforced with triangles of lighter tubing. It is arranged so that the stress falls on the tubes, or special fittings, not the bolts. A front-to-back keel mounts a steerable nosewheel, seat, engine, and a vertical stabilizer. Outlying mainwheels are mounted on an axle. Some versions may mount seaplane-style floats for water operations. Bensen-type autogyros use a pusher configuration for simplicity and to increase visibility for the pilot. Power can be supplied by a variety of engines. McCulloch drone engines,

Rotax marine engines, Subaru automobile engines, and other designs have been used in Bensen-type designs. The rotor is mounted atop the vertical mast. The rotor system of all Bensen-type autogyros is of a two-blade teetering design. There are some disadvantages associated with this rotor design, but the simplicity of the rotor design lends itself to ease of assembly and maintenance and is one of the reasons for its popularity. Aircraft-quality birch was specified in early Bensen designs, and a wood/steel composite is used in the world speed record holding Wallis design. Gyroplane rotor blades are made from other materials such as aluminium and GRP -based composite blades. Because of Bensen's pioneering of the concept and the popularity of his design, "Gyrocopter" has become a genericized trademark for pusher configuration autogyros. The success of Bensen triggered a number of other designs, some of them fatally flawed with an offset between the centre of gravity and thrust line, risking a Power PushOver (PPO or bunt-over) causing death to the pilot and giving gyroplanes in general a poor reputation in contrast to Cierva's original intention and early statistics. Most new autogyros are now safe from PPO.

Chapter 2

Scope of the project

Even before the day we were first informed to start preparations for the final year project we had constituted the team and were already searching for a project that would provide us with impeccable learning experience. Many topics were discussed like unmanned aerial vehicle and performance enhancement of a car using methyl orange solution in petrol. All the aspects of both these topics were discussed in length and were concluded to be unchallenging for a graduation project. It was then that the idea of an autogyro sprung up. All of us had only a vague idea about an autogyro, its working and its flight control. It was unanimously agreed that the project would definitely provide us the learning experience we were looking for. As the initial step we were all required to gather and learn as much information as possible about gyrocopters. After the research and study the project topic was finally decided as Design analysis and fabrication of gyrocopter. After the selection of the topic a study was conducted on the scope of the project and the study yielded enough results to fascinate us. If we could successfully complete the project it would be a giant stride in the field of personal aviation in India. It was also learnt that there isnt a single company in India which manufactures gyrocopters. The whole of Asia had only two such companies. This was an opportunity in one hand and a challenge in other, challenging in the sense that an opportunity for a case study was non-existent. When the preliminary presentation was done in front of the faculty members of our department a suggestion was made that a study should be conducted on the advantages of gyrocopters over helicopters. The study was conducted and the results are discussed below.

Cost Effective
This is one of the most popular reasons people choose to fly an Autogyro. The costs of buying a gyro, even the top of the line models from Europe like the AutoGyro, is less than what it would cost to buy a helicopter or most fixed wing planes. Then when we factor in running costs which are far cheaper than any other kind of aircraft, we have a great reason to choose to fly a gyroplane over some of the other options available.

Much Cheaper To Learn To Fly

Each person is different in how quickly they learn how to fly an Autogyro. But as a rough average we could expect to take around 35 hours of practical instruction if were starting from scratch before were ready to fly solo. This will cost us somewhere in the region of $6,000.When we compare that with the cost of getting your Private Pilots License (PPL) which can cost us well into six figures, the gyro alternative is definitely starting to look pretty good.

Easy To Learn To Fly

Learning how to fly an Autogyro is far easier than we might think much easier than learning to drive a car, because theres no traffic to contend with and we have fewer things to worry about. The controls are very intuitive as a pilot well be using a control stick, rudder pedals and a throttle to control speed, height and direction.

Handle Windy Conditions Very Well

The Autogyro handles windy conditions with ease in fact once we build up a level of skill and experience well actually welcome a bit of wind. Fixed wing aircraft really feel the effects of wind because of their larger wing area, and this is exaggerated greatly in a light aircraft like a trike.

Visibility
The visibility from an open cockpit gyro is second to none, and the visibility from the two closed cockpit versions is not far behind. This makes it perfect for both recreational flying and aerial observation tasks like patrols, surveys and photography.

Autogyros Cant Stall Or Go Into A Tailspin

When a helicopter engine cuts out, the rotor on top of the aircraft is no longer being powered and therefore stalls. In this case the pilot has to very quickly try and turn the aircraft into a gyro to get the blades spinning again and create enough lift to allow the helicopter to land safely. We also potentially have the problem in a helicopter of tailspin, where the blade at the rear of the chopper no longer counteracts the torque being created by the rotor. With a gyro we never have either of these problems. Theres no power going to the rotor, so theres no torque being generated meaning theres no chance of the gyro going into a tailspin. And if the engine cuts out, the rotors continue to spin in autorotation, which continues to create lift, allowing the aircraft to safely descend.

Minimal Take-Off And Landing Distance Required

While its true that we cant take-off vertically in an AutoGyro (unless we have a really strong headwind), there is much less runway required than for a fixed wing aircraft. And when we have a nice headwind to take-off into, the runway required is well under 100m, making them perfect for people who live on a nice block of land with room for a small runway. All these factors contributed to the existing notion that autogyros would become much more popular in the near future. Although the design analysis and fabrication of gyrocopter is much challenging we decided to go ahead with the project.

Chapter

Propeller

The propeller is the rotary element in the gyrocopter which is driven directly by the engine. The stress it comes under is enormously large that the design, stress analysis and fabrication had to be done with utmost care and accuracy. Also the propeller provides the thrust action required for the gyrocopter. The twist in the propeller blade is what makes the propeller produce thrust. When spinning, the part of the propeller blades closer to the center move slower than those at the tips creating lift. The twist in the blade is shallow at the tip and steep at the hub. This gives even thrust from one end the blade to the other. The amount of thrust created by a propeller depends on how fast it spins and at what angle its blades slice through the air. Propellers bolt directly to the engine. Aircraft engines are designed for maximum power where the propeller will also turn at an efficient rpm. The engine turns at an rpm too high for the propellers. The solution is to use a reduction unit .

The best working propeller is one that is rigid enough to allow all blades to move alike, thin at all cord sections to eliminate as much drag as possible, and strong enough to satisfy the large amounts of stress required during flight. Understanding completely the significance it holds, we started working on the propeller. The first step in the process was the design of the component . The constraints and dimensions were determined by analysing various propeller dimensions and shapes that are currently used by gyrocopter manufacturing companies like Trixy aviation, aviomania and popular rotocraft association (PRA) . Also various propeller shapes and dimensions were obtained from journals and studied in detail. After determining the dimensional attributes, the design was drawn in CATIA . The dimensional paramaters which were taken into account for the design process are listed below

The third and final step was fabrication of the propeller. It was definitely the trickiest step as well. The challenges lying ahead were oblivious to all of us. We again conducted a study on different materials that were used for fabricating propellers and learnt that the traditional propellers are made of wood but the newest high tech ones are made of composites. The high tech ones which were made of composites was normally our first option . But on further analysis we learned that such a move would backfire spectacularly because the cost constraint which we were planning to limit to Rs 10000 would catapult to the range of Rs 18000. Also working on it to shape it to the desired and shape dimension would be very difficult provided the limited resources at our disposal. As a result , the second option ie, propellers made of wood was decided as the economically viable and humanly workable option. A study was conducted on the different varieties of wood which were used for fabricating propellers in an autogyro. The most frequently used wood was Pine Pitch (Pinus Rigid). The density of the Pine Pitch wood was 0.542 g/cc with a modulus of elasticity value of 965kg/sq.cm and a modulus of rupture value of 7.40kg/sq.cm. But there emerged the problem of scarcity of pine wood. On consulting with timber sellers we learnt that pine wood was virtually unavailable in kerala timber market. A new challenge was arising . We had to replace Pitch Pine with a wood which had similar physical features. Gum tree, Tamarack and cherry were the options which fulfilled the physically similar condition. But these trees were also unavailable in kerala market . Then came up the option of Mahagony ( swietenia mahogani) with a density value which exactly matched the value of density of pitch ine. Although the modulus of elasticity value(890) and modulus of rupture value(7.90) didnt match exactly with those of pine pitch, they were compromised due to lack of alternatives.

Mahagony was bought from a saw mill in pallikkathodu, kottayam and was handed over to the carpenter whom we had found out for doing the work . The next challenge was to convince the carpenter what we were making and what its shape was. We obtained sectional views of the propeller from the CAD model and explained those in detail to the carpenter . Before starting to work, the wood was seasoned to reduce the moisture content and to prevent shrinkage after the work has been completed . Then the wood piece was started to work upon and the was transformed to the desired shape in 8 days time. Still the work was not finished. The propeller had to be balanced . Balancing was done manually with the help of sandpapers and waterpapers. The balancing act was followed by treatment of wood with alkaline copper quarternary to increase the durability and as a precaution to attack of insects and fungus. The final step was polishing and painting . The tip was painted red and the rest of the area was polished smooth.

Chapter 3

ROTOR BLADE

As mentioned in the first chapter,Introduction to gyrocopters, the free-spinning rotor blades of the gyroplane is what sets itself apart from all other aircraft. While gyroplane rotor blades look like those found on helicopters there are some notable differences.A gyroplanes rotors tend to be of smaller cord and longer span than those used on helicopters. Because the rotor on a gyroplane must be in autorotation we need not only enough area to produce lift but the rotor has to have enough energy to rotate as well. A gyroplane rotor blade typically is shaped very much like a wing airfoil where a helicopter rotor blade is more symmetrical between the top and bottom. This is because a gyroplane rotor is intended for lift and a helicopters blades are designed for hover efficiency.Gyroplane rotor blades have been made from bamboo & fabric, wood, metals and composites. These materials have been used on many different types of rotor systems and with different manufacturing methods.Rotor blades are very strong in tension (when spinning) but are somewhat fragile when static.