What is a Gyroplane?

"Gyroplane" is an official term designated by the Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) describing an aircraft that gets lift from a freely turning rotary wing, or rotor
blades, and which derives its thrust from an engine-driven propeller. Historically, this
type of aircraft has been known as the autogiro and the gyrocopter. hese early
names and their variants were filed as trademarks.
!yroplanes derive lift from freely turning rotor blades tilted back to catch the air. he
rushing air spins the rotor as the aircraft is thrust forward by an engine-driven
propeller. "arly gyroplanes were powered by engines in a tractor (pulling)
configuration and were relatively heavy. #odern gyroplanes use a pusher propeller
and are light and maneuverable. $ith the engine in the rear, the gyroplane has
unobstructed visibility.
Gyroplane - Helicopter Comparison
The Gyroplane
hrust is produced by an engine-driven propeller
he unpowered, freely turning rotor is tilted back as the gyroplane moves
forward
%ncoming airflow through the rotor causes it to spin, producing lift. his is
called autorotation.
Always operates in autorotation, thus&
'annot stall like fi(ed wing aircraft
Flies safely at low altitudes and low speeds, but cannot hover
)o need for heavy main rotor transmission nor a tail rotor
The Helicopter
he powered rotor produces both lift and thrust, and is tilted forward
'an hover, but a powered rotor re*uires&
Ade*uate forward speed and+or altitude to maintain flight in case of power
failure
A heavy main transmission
ail rotor to counteract the tor*ue imposed on the aircraft

A !yroplane can fly more slowly than airplanes and will not stall. hey can fly faster
than helicopters but cannot hover. ,ince the rotor blades on the gyroplane are
powered only by the air (autorotation), much like a windmill, there is no need for a
tail rotor for anti-tor*ue. he gyroplane is a stable flying platform. his is not so with
helicopters, which pull the air down through engine-powered rotor blades making it
possible to hover, but also making the aircraft very complicated and e(pensive to fly.
-ue to their inherent simplicity, gyroplanes are easier to operate and less e(pensive
to maintain than helicopters.

Design Simplicity
he simplicity of a gyroplane.s design translates directly into safety, higher
performance, higher mission readiness, lower maintenance, and more economical
operation for its operator.
!yroplanes in flight are always in autorotation. /f power fails in a gyroplane the
autorotation continues, and the aircraft settles softly to the ground from any altitude.
he procedure to land after a power failure is nearly the same procedure as a normal
landing, which re*uires no landing roll. hus the gyroplane is a safer aircraft for low
and slow flight, as compared with both helicopters and airplanes. he ability of
gyroplanes to fly faster than helicopters and slower than airplanes makes it
something of a hybrid, having the good *ualities of the other two types of aircraft
with little of the bad.
he single attraction of helicopters over gyroplanes is their ability to hover, which is
necessary in some situations such as rescue or in sling load work. /n air surveillance
and point-to-point flying, not being able to hover is not a disadvantage because
many gyroplanes, such as the !roen 0rothers Hawks, take off and land vertically
without having to hover. Helicopters at low altitude out of ground effect avoid
hovering whenever possible. /t is too dangerous. o fi( surveillance on one spot,
proper procedure for all rotorcraft is to circle in a slow orbit.
History of Gyroplanes
"(cerpt From
Autogiro to !yroplane& 1234 - 3554
-r. 0ruce H. 'harnov 6h.-. 7.-.
Hofstra 8niversity
7uan de la 'ierva was born in #urcia, ,pain on ,eptember 31, 192:, and by 1259-2,
had decided to make aviation his career. /n 1211 he enrolled at the 'ivil "ngineering
'ollege of #adrid ('aminos, 'anales y 6uertos) and in 1213 with his friends ;6epe;
0arcala and 6ablo -ia< constructed the first ,panish airplane, the 0'--/, known as
;"/ 'angre=o; - the ;>ed 'rab;, becoming the ;Father of ,panish Aviation.;
/n 1212 'ierva produced a large three-engine bomber that, piloted by 'aptain 7ulio
>ios Argiieso, crashed in its initial flight when the aircraft stalled. 6ondering the
crash, 'ierva.s brilliant insight was to see the wing differently ---aircraft stalled when
the air passing over the wing failed to generate enough lift at slow speed - he
reasoned that stall could be effectively eliminated if the wing itself moved
independently of the aircraft. he rotor, a moving, stall-proof wing, was placed on
top of a fuselage. He patented the name; Autogiro; and it flew by autorotation, ;the
process of producing lift with freely-rotating aerofoils by means of the aerodynamic
forces resulting from an upward flow of air.; As long as the Autogiro was propelled
forward, air coming up through the rotor would generate lift, and should the
Autogiro.s motor fail, it would gently descend while air flow upward through the rotor
blades.
0etween 1235 - 34 'ierva progressively developed autorotation in the '.1, '.3 and
'.4, but it would be his forth model that would finally con*ueror the air. 'ierva
stated that the first flight of his 'A Autogiro was on 7anuary 2, 1234 at !etafe
airfield outside #adrid when ( 'alvary) ?ieutenant Ale=andro !@me< ,pencer guided
the craft in ta(i tests during which the craft became airborne. 0ut most historians
maintain that the first observed (and filmed) flight of '.A took
place on 7anuary 1B, 1234 when !@me< ,pencer flew @55 ft
at a steady height of 14 ft across the field. ransferring
operations to "ngland in 123: and forming 'ierva Autogiro
?td. on #arch 3A,123@ with prominent ,cottish industrialist
7ames !. $eir, his brother Ciscount $illiam $eir of "astwood
and ,ir >obert #. Dindersley, 'ierva continued to improve the
Autogiro and in early 1232 licensed the technology and rights
to his patents to Harold Frederick 6itcairn of 0ryn Athyn, 6 A.
he youngest son of 7ohn 6itcairn, co-founder of 6ittsburgh 6late !lass 'ompany,
Harold was born in 192B and took an early interest in aviation. /nspired by the first
flight of the $right brothers in 1254, he began flight training as an air cadet in the
last days of $$/, and would eventually earn a pilot.s license signed by %rville
$right. 6itcairn and Agnew ?arsen, who he had met in pilot training, produced the
classic #ailwing airmail series, but it was the Autogiro that fired their passion. /n
1239 6itcairn ordered a 'ierva '.9$ (the $ was for the American $right $hirlwind
engine), which arrived at 6itcairn Field, $illow !rove, 6A and on -ecember 19, 1239
made the first rotary-wing flight in America piloted by 'ierva pilot H. '. A. ;-i<<y;
>awson, followed the ne(t day by 6itcairn.
/n early 1232, 'ierva and 6itcairn negotiators agreed that the 6itcairn-'ierva
Autogiro 'ompany (6'A) would be formed in America with the rights to license
'ierva.s patents. 6itcairn threw himself into the development and promotion of the
Autogiro - and the results of the ne(t 1@ months would
earnhim and his associates the 'ollier rophy for the
greatest aviation achievement for 1245. 6itcairn had refined
Autogiro development, first learning from the '9$ (which
was presented to the ,mithsonian on 7uly 33, 1241), then
with a series of developmental aircraft, the 6'A-/, 1A and l0.
(he 6'A-1A is currently e(hibited at the American
Helicopter #useum E "ducation 'enter at the 0randywine
Airport, $est 'hester, 6A on loan from the ,mithsonian). 0ut
it was the ne(t aircraft, the 6'A-3, that captivated America. An original design the
6'A-3 was seen over ma=or American cities in late 1245-early 1241 in its certification
flights to much publicity and acclaim. /t innovated with a clutched gearbo( that
briefly transmitted power to prerotate the rotor to greatly shorten the takeoff run. /t
would prove a crucial contribution to Autogiro development.
'ierva developed progressively more sophisticated designs with a means to tilt the
rotor head and altering the pitch (angle) of each individual rotor blade, called
collective and cyclic control, and, making use of 6itcairn.s prerotator, achieved a
;=ump takeoff; capacity with the '12#k/C in
1241-43 he rotor would be spun up at <ero
pitch and then ;snapped; into a positive angle,
causing the aircraft to ;=ump; into air, an
ability developed by 6itcairn the ne(t year in
the developmental 6A-33 Autogiro. 0ut both
inventors reali<ed that this was only a partial
step in reali<ing the Autogiro.s potential, for a
significant problem remained. "ven though the
Autogiro could takeoff and land vertically, the
wing-based control surfaces lost effectiveness at slow landing speeds. 'ierva.s '45
series and 6itcairn.s 6A-33 and ?uscombe-built aluminum body 6A-4@, and the D--1
series constructed by Dellett Autogiro 'ompany of 6hiladelphia were engineering
marvels capable of =ump take-offs and direct-control without wings. 0ut this came
too late to save the Autogiro, for the world.s attention was riveted on the stunning
indoor demonstrations of the Focke-Achgelis Fa-@1 helicopter by Hanna >eitsch in
1249.
'ierva died in the crash of a D?# -'-3 bound
for Amsterdam from the airport at 'roydon
Aerodrome, ?ondon on -ecember 2, 124@.
,tripped of his passion, the 'ierva Autogiro
'ompany, under the engineering leadership of
-r. 7.A.7. 0ennett, would shift the focus of its
efforts towards developing a helicopterF and
even though 'ierva-licensed Autogiros would be
used by the 0ritish, French, >ussian and
7apanese forces, the Autogiro would all but
disappear by the end of $$//. Few would know
or remember that it was the "nglish 'ierva >ota '.45A Autogiros that would daily
calibrate the coastal radars that enabled the >AF to defeat the !erman ?uftwaffe and
win the 0attle of 0ritain. he 7apanese Dellett-licensed Dayaba Da-1A Autogiro series
had virtually no impact on the war and the >ussian sA!/ AB Autogyro (not built
under a 'ierva license, hence not an Augtogiro), the first such aircraft specifically
constructed for combat operations, faded before the might of the !erman onslaught
as did the French aircraft built by ?iore-et-%liver and ,)'A,".
Almost no one remembers the obscure 0ritish Armed Forces "(perimental
"stablishment #alcolm >otaplane or >otabuggy, a modified $illys 1+A ton ;four-by-
four; military truck with a seesaw ;teetering; rotor and attached aircraft control
surfaces. 6erhaps the most ungainly flying craft ever, it was towed successfully to
1,B55 ft. And even less well-known was ;6ro=ect ,kywards;, a parallel wartime
attempt in Australia to develop a flying =eep (;Fleep;).
he most familiar of the $$// autorotational
developments were, parado(ically, the most
insubstantial, the "nglish and !erman rotary kites.
he Focke-Achgelis FA-445, launched from !erman
submarines at the end of a A55 ft tether to increase
target observation, is found in more museums than
any other comparable craft only because the Allies
captured the factory, but few of the 12A4 "nglish
>otachutes designed by >aoul Hafner survive, a one-
person giro-glider designed to insert secret agents
into occupied "urope from airplanes with a precision
gained from use of a two-bladed teetering rotorhead that could be controlled by
means of a hanging-stick control.
And so by the end of $$// the Autogiro had effectively disappeared. 6itcairn had
surrendered his airfield to the military for wartime use and had the prototype 6A-4@
aluminum bodies cut up for scrape to aid the war effort. Dellett had renamed itself
the Dellett Aircraft 'ompany and what was left of 6itcairn.s manufacturing company,
becoming briefly the Firestone !lider E Autogiro 'ompany, was effectively out of the
business. he other American licensee, the 0uhl Aircraft 'ompany, had developed a
single model but failed to survive the -epression. And the attempts by 6hiladelphiaGs
". 0urke $ilford, making use of patents of !ermans $alter >ieseler and $alter
Dreiser (rigid rotors with control achieved by means of cyclic pitch variation) had not
gained engineering acceptance. And perhaps the most intriguing autorotational
e(periments, the pioneering convertiplane combination of a gyroplane and fi(ed-wing
aircraft of !erard 6. Herrick ended in 12A3, but not before successful mid-air
conversions by test pilot !eorge ownson in 124B (that aircraft, the Herrick HC-3A is
stored at the 6aul !arber 'enter, ,ilver Hill, #-). /n 12A: -ick Haymes may have
crooned to Helen Forrest in /.ll 0uy hat -ream that ;we can honeymoon in 'airo in
our brand new Autogiro; but there were no new Autogiros - it seemed certain that
'ierva.s vision would merely be a minor footnote to helicopter development, but it
did survive -- it came down to a single >otachute and a >ussian immigrant - /gor
0ensen. Although Harris $oods would design and fly a giro-glider in 12A:, a
development unknown to 0ensen and forgotten by history, the popular future of
autorotation lay with the charismatic, passionate >ussianH
/gor 0ensen, born in 121B, was the son of a >ussian agricultural scientist, 0asil
#itrophan and Ale(andra 6. 0ensen. His father was posted to '<echoslovakia in 121B
at the beginning of the >ussian >evolution while the rest of the family remained
behind. he >ussian civil war lead to harsh times, and the 0ensen family was soon
reunited in 6rague, far from the turmoil. At 1B 0ensen was sent to the 8niversity of
?ouvain in 0elgium, from which he received a 0.,. degree.
0ensen accepted a scholarship from the ,tevens /nstitute in )ew 7ersey in 124B to
study mechanical engineering, graduating with honors in 12A5. As an alien 0ensen
had been forced to turn down a =ob offer to work for /gor ,ikorsky, and his first =ob
was as an engineer with !eneral "lectric at the age of 34. !eneral "lectric e(ecutives
took notice of 0ensen.s interest and assigned the young engineer to the company.s
helicopter development efforts.
$hile working on the pro=ect, 0ensen flew a salvaged Dellett I>-4 in 12A4, and
eventually gained almost e(clusive use of the surplus Autogiro. 0ensen became a
highly skilled Autogiro pilot, and gained a deep understanding of the dynamics and
theory of autorotational flight. he 8,AAF had received some of the recovered FA-
445 rotary kites and were e(perimenting with pilot !eorge ownson, as well as a
Hafner >otachute and 0ensen asked his boss to ac*uire the >otachute for evaluation.
he military agreed to loan the >otachute providing that !eneral "lectric agreed not
to fly it.
0ensen ignored the military.s re*uirements and personally flew the >otchute in tow,
and launched it from the bomb rack of the I>-4. hose tests
lead to the 0ensen 0-1, an amateur-built 135 /b giro-glider capable of carrying a 455
/b load, differing from thee >otachute with the addition of nose and tail wheels, a
semi-rigid rotor in place of the >otachute.s individual flapping rotor blades, and a
control stick .reverser. to allow more effective direct-control of the rotor. he crash of
the 0-1 led directly to the 0-3 which was of an all-metal construction. he 0-3 lead
to the !-" !yro-!lider in )ovember, 12A@ but little came of the !-" model. And
subse*uently in ,chenectady, the Helicraft "*uipment 'ompany developed a @5 /b
variant of the >otachute called the Heli-glider in 12A2. An e(tremely simple design
that flew with a 1A ft rotor that achieved ::5 rpm, the lack of weight made it difficult
to fly with an overhead stick control, and the pro=ect was soon abandoned.
0enson, now firmly committed to rotary flight development, =oined Daman Aircraft in
12:1 where he organi<ed and directed the research department and flew Air Force
and )avy helicopters. After two years, borrowing money from his brother, 0ensen
left to found his own company in >aleigh, )'.
/n 12:4 0ensen Aircraft 'orporation introduced the 0-: !yro-!lider, a single-seat
rotary--kite towed in back of a vehicle and deriving its lift from an unpowered rotor.
/t featured a light tubular aluminum frame resembling a cross with two pieces, a
longer keel crossed by a shorter perpendicular section. A lightweight aluminum-
frame web set was attached to both the keel and a reinforced metal mast e(tending
upward from the keel. 'ontrol was initially achieved with a hanging stick control
attached directly to the rotor hub that was positioned on top of the mast with a two-
blade rotor. A nose wheel was attached directly to the front of the keel while landing
wheels were affi(ed to each end of the perpendicular crosspiece. he keel, in back of
he seat and mast, carried a plywood fin and rudder much as had the >otachute. /t
flew well when towed by even a small automobile and did not re*uire any license,
and was relatively safe. /t was also
distinguished by ease of construction and
the builder could either purchase a kit or
build from plans. he materials were readily
obtained and fabrication could be completed
by the moderately skilled in 4-A weeks. /t
would become the home-built 0-@, and the
prototype was accepted into the
,mithsonian.s )A,# on 7uly 33, 12@:.
0ensen subse*uently developed a >eynolds
aluminum prototype, the 0-B !yro-gilder which flew on 7une 1B, 12::. From 0-B
.came the 0-B# (for motori<ed) which first flew on -ecember @,12:: with 0ensen as
pilot and 'harles ;'harlie; "lrod and im 7ohnson as ground crew. /t weighed 199 lb.
as the airframe was made of rounded aluminum tubing and had a wooden propeller
attached to a A3 hp )elson two-stroke engine, with the wooden rotor attached to a
spindle type tilting head cyclic pitch rotor with a hanging control stick. 0ensen called
his >otachute-derived creation a !yrocopter, a term he subse*uently trademarked.
After three days of successful flight testing the 0-B# crashed as its pressuri<ed fuel
tank failed. 0ensen, a highly e(perienced Autogiro pilot, set the aircraft down in
woods ad=acent to his )' factory. He later ascribed the safe landing to ;much luck
and the good ?ord.s will.; he 0-B#, rebuilt in three days, was flying by -ecember
1B, 12::, a particularly moving e(perience for 0enson as that was the :3nd
anniversary of the $right brothers first powered flight.. "ver aeronautical engineer
and pragmatic scientist, 0ensen relentlessly analy<ed the flight performance of the
0-B#, particularly those factors that had led to the accident, and the result was an
improved control linkage to the rotor head.
he subse*uent 0-9# model, incorporating the improvements developed and tested
in the 0-B#, powered by a more powerful B3 hp #c'ulloch two-stroke piston engine
that had been used on drones for the military, was placed into production in 12:B
and became the most produced and copied
aircraft design in history and provided, in kit
form and plan-built, the most popular way to
fly. he ;,pirit of Ditty Hawk;, a 0-9#
!yrocopter in which 0ensen had personally
duplicated the $right brothers historic first
flight at Ditty Hawk on -ecember 1B, 12@@,
and with which he had set twelve world and
national !yrocopter speed, distance and
altitude records between #ay 12@B and 7une
12@9, was accepted into the ,mithsonian
/nstitution aviation collection on #ay 1A,
12@2. he 0ensen, and its variants and local
adaptation was to dominate the American
!yrocopter movement for almost twenty-five
years.

/n "urope, however, it was a different story. "ngland.s $ing 'ommander Denneth H.
$allis, ,cotland.s 7im #ontgomerie in and Finland.s 7ukka ervamaki began with
0ensen kits or plans, but soon modified the design,
taking gyrocopter design into some very un-0ensen-
like directions. $allis, who would achieve
international fame with ;?ittle )ellie;, a $A-11@
autogyro, in the 12@B 7ames 0ond film Jou %nly ?ive
wice, remains an honored pilot, world record holder
and designer, while ervamaki did pioneering work
with composite materials (fuselage and rotor blades)
and was the most significant influence on /taly.s
premier designer+ manufacturer Cittorio #agni.

0ut all mid-century-on attempts to revive the
Autogiro failed - in 12:2-@5 Dellett attempted
bring its aircraft back for agricultural uses to no
avail, and the 6itcairn license of its 124@ A'-4:
;>otadable; Autogiro, capable of driving down
the highway at 3:-45 mph (stored today at the
)A,# 6aul !arber facility) by /ndiana.s ,kyway
"ngineering got no further than a prototype in
the early 12@5s. he most ambitious reali<ation
of 'ierva.s vision, the Fairey >otodye produced
under the initial
direction of -r.
7.A.7. 0ennett
and 'aptain A.
!raham Forsyth, flew between 12:B -12@3 until
cancelled by the 0ritish government in its
;rationali<ation of the helicopter industry;. he
>otodyne, a
convertiplane
making use of four :5 ft steel =et-tipped rotors,
could take off and land as a helicopter and fly as a
gyroplane carrying A3 persons at 355 mph - in 12:B
with a perfect safety record. /n order to conceal the
amount of its funding, the only model was ordered
destroyed by the 0ritish government and all that
remains of this incredible aircraft are a few parts in
a museum, photographs and films - had it gone into
production and the 8,#' pursued its interest, the
military might have ac*uired an effective vertical+
fi(ed-wing combination that even now remains unreali<ed. And the Damov Da-33
(he ;>ussian >otodyne;), known in the ,oviet 8nion as the Cintokrulya (Cintokryl)
(;,crew $ing;), and dubbed ;Hoop; by )A%, also failed to gain government
acceptance after several crashes. And the 8mbaugh (later Air E ,pace) 19A, Avian
3+195 and #c'ulloch 7-3 3+4 place gyroplanes failed to achieve commercial
acceptance despite technical sophistication and the enthusiastic belief of their
backers that the world needed a gyroplane. /n general, all that remained of 'ierva
and 6itcairn.s autorotational vision were the thousands of amateur-built !yrocopters
and their variants.
0ensen and his associates would in 12@3 found the 6opular >otorcraft Association
(6>A), which even today remains the world.s preeminent Autogiro + auto gyro +
!yrocopter + gyroplane organi<ation. 0ensen declared in 12B5 somewhat unfairly
that Den 0rock had so modified the design that it could not no longer be called a
!yrocopter - 0rock then called his D03 a ;gyroplane.; 8nder 0rock.s presidency of
the 6>A (12B3 -129B) gyroplane design flourished. he most notable of the new
designers was 'alifornian #artin Hollmann. His ma=or contributions include the
,portster, the world.s first successful two-seat amateur-built gyroplane trainer in
12B3, and the first ;ultralight; gyro plane, the ;0umble 0ee;, in 1294. Also
significant was 0ill 6arsons two-seat rainer, a 0ensen 0-9# with a longer keel to
accommodate a second seat, dual controls and a rotor head attached by an upside-
down ;u; shaped tandem double mast. 0ut it was only at the start of a new century
that the Autogiro was to become the gyroplane.
!roen 0rothers Aviation, headed by brothers -avid and 7ay !roen, has developed a
family of larger Hawk A gyroplanes targeted to the agricultural, law enforcement,
package delivery and passenger shuttle service markets. ime maga<ine, in its
)ovember 12, 3551 issue, named the Hawk A as one of the best ;/nventions of the
Jear.;
he 8tah %lympic 6ublic ,afety 'ommand
(8%6,') made use of a Hawk A during the 3553
%lympics with a F?/> ,ystems, /nc. day + night
observation system, a ,pectrolab /nc. ,I-:
search light, an Avale( echnologies flat panel
display, a 0roadcast #icrowave ,ervices
realtime video downlink system and a law
enforcement communications radio stack. !0A
had succeeded in defining a reconnaissance
mission where 'ierva, 6itcairn, Dellett, the
French, "nglish, !ermans, >ussians, 7apanese
and even Den $allis had failed. !iven the
enthusiastic reception of the Hawk series of
gyroplanes, the business acumen of the !roen brothers and their associates, it is
likely that they will be successful and the Autogiro, in its newest gyroplane
configurations, will achieve an acceptance that has been elusive since the 6'A-3 and
'.45A flew over American and "uropean skies.

!roen 0rothers Aviation e(tends their gratitude to
Dr. Bruce H. Charnov for permission to share
the proceeding excerpt from his informative
book From Autogiro to Gyropane.!