Its a Plane.. Its a Helicopter… No, Its an AutoGyro!!!
Posted on December 22, 2009 by aaronredbaron
In the years of early rotary winged developement, Autogyros were reliably flying the skies long before helicopters. With an unpowered rotor and an engine to pull it through the air, autogyros are capable of mild flight performance and short landings. While the curious contraptions were passed up for all practical purposes when the helicopter was perfected, they still offer a unique appeal and quirky, stable flight characteristics that keep enthusiests coming back for more. After watching a very good autogyro performance at the IRCHA 2009 helicopter event in Muncie Indiana, I started to think about building my own autogyro.
Helicopters are out of the practical realm for most scratch builders, but autorgyros are not. Using commonly available materials and hobby parts, any intermediate modeler could follow plans, build from a kit, or come up with their own design. During the course of digging, I came upon a tresure trove of information at autogyro.com, which happens to be information geared entirely for model autogyros. According to a post on the front page, it was developed by a Jim Baxter, who by 2005 had decided to shut the website down. Seeing the immense value the website had to offer the hobby community, AeroBalsa.com kept the website alive and has kept it up in Jim’s original form ever since. I am going over ideas on how I can design my own autogyro, and I have already found the information at autogyro.com invaluble! A big thanks to AeroBalsa.com for keeping the site up! Take a look at their site for several good looking kit options and pre-made rotor blades for autorgyros.
Check back soon for my first attempts at a model autogyro!
