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Article source:  Popular Mechanics Gyroplanes fire our imagination like no other aircraft. Before there were helicopters, newsreels featuring the Autogiro—invented by the Spanish aviation pioneer Juan de la Cierva—dazzled audiences with images of the craft's hummingbirdlike maneuvers. The public clamored to know more about this amazing flying machine. Newspapers and magazines, including Popular Mechanics, obliged. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, articles fueled fantasies by predicting that gyroplanes would become the automobiles of the sky. Future commuters would roll them out of their garages, take off from their driveways and land on the roofs of their factories and offices. Then, in 1955, something very unexpected occurred. Igor Bensen made the futuristic dream come true. For only $999, you could buy a prefabricated kit for his Gyrocopter. A used Volkswagen engine and about 40 hours of shop time built a "poor man's helicopter" that turned the sky into your personal highway. Although gyroplanes never shook the foundations of aviation, the public's imagination had been captured and the gyroplane revolution had begun. Today, dozens of companies whose owners were inspired by Bensen and de la Cierva sell plans, kits and ready-to-fly gyroplanes. Four Gyroplane Myths Along with inspiring dreams, gyroplanes also have created their own mythology. Before you spend $150 for a set of plans or $40,000 for a ready-to-fly gyroplane, you need to be able to separate gyroplane fact from gyroplane fiction. The first and most insidious of the four great myths is that gyroplanes are safer than conventional aircraft. For this, Amelia Earhart is partly to blame. In 1929, Earhart agreed to test a Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro. "The Autogiro has wonderful characteristics of safety and ease of control," reported the world-renowned aviator after landing in Willow Grove, Pa., a few miles north of Philadelphia. "The automatic stability of the machine, as well as its peculiar properties of safe vertical descent, make it of immense utility." Earhart was correct in that the aerodynamics of gyroplanes makes it impossible for them to stall or to spin, potentially deadly situations in fixed-wing aircraft. "Gyroplanes are safe, but you have to be careful," says Martin Hollmann, America's premier gyrocopter designer. A retired engineer, Hollmann designed the first two-passenger gyrocopter, the Sportster, over the span of several years in the early 1970s. Nearly a decade later, a back injury sustained in the crash of a fixed-wing plane prevented him from lifting the Sportster's 65-pound rotor over his head and onto its spindle. While recuperating he designed the Bumble Bee, the first ultralight gyroplane. It had a rotor he could lift. "Gyroplanes got a bad rap because people were told they could teach themselves to fly," Hollmann tells PM, addressing the second great myth. "You cannot teach yourself to fly, you have to go to school," he says. The need for proper training is borne out in crash statistics. Over the past five years, between January 1996 and April 2001, there were 19 deaths in 55 gyroplane crashes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Mention of the FAA, the government agency that regulates aviation, raises the third myth, that you can legally fly a gyroplane without a pilot's license. If you have your eye on a two-place machine, the answer is a resounding no. You need a license. For single-seat gyroplanes, the answer is not as clear-cut. The determining issue, says an FAA spokesman, is not what you fly, but how much the plane weighs. If it is 254 pounds or less, it qualifies as an ultralight and, under current regulations, can be flown without a license. A word of caution if you select a design that is at the edge of the limit: Monitor the weight as you build, and be especially careful of creature-comfort options that can tack on invisible pounds. The fourth gyroplane myth also involves a number—the hours needed to build your gyroplane. Plan and kit sellers tend to low-ball their estimates. Depending upon whether you build from plans or from a 51 percent kit, you should set aside weekends for at least a year. Learn To Fly Regardless of whether you select an ultralight, single-place or two-seat design, you will need flight training. Every gyroplane supplier that PM interviewed recommends beginning with a visit to your local flight school to learn the rudiments of handling a small fixed-wing aircraft. Plan on about 10 hours of training. Fixed-wing training teaches more than basic airmanship skills. It gives you a feel for navigating the sky in a lightweight aircraft. Although a gyroplane may look like a helicopter, its controls are more like those of a fixed-wing craft. Both are controlled with a stick and rudder. Moving the stick produces a slow, coordinated turn as the gyroplane's tail causes the fuselage to weathervane in the direction of travel. Using the rudder increases the turn rate. At least, that is the theory. Making it all come together takes practice, the sort you can get only in a two-place gyroplane. Moving from a fixed-wing airplane to a gyroplane is more about training the muscles than the mind. It is more akin to learning to ride a bicycle than learning to drive a car. For this reason, the amount of time needed to master gyroplane flight depends mostly on how quickly your body learns new tricks. Hollmann tells PM that two of his fastest learners were an 11-year-old boy and a 78-year-old retired tightrope walker. Build Or Buy Selecting the right gyroplane is a matter of time versus money. It is important to know that gyroplanes are slow, noisy, low-flying machines. If you have a need for speed, consider building a fixed-wing plane ("Sign Of The Zodiac," Aug. 1997, page 46). But if the experience of raw flight is what you are after, any of the gyroplanes shown here can become your magic carpet. For those who cannot wait to get airborne and impress passengers, there is only one choice: the Magni Gyro M-16 Trainer, a factory-built gyroplane imported from Italy. Recently approved for sale in the United States, this partially enclosed, tandem-seat machine won the Best Gyroplane prize at Sun-N-Fun 2000 air show in Florida, and a slew of other awards. Powered by a reliable 115-hp Rotax 914 engine, it has a top speed of 115 mph and has a useful load of 617 pounds. Brace yourself before reaching for your checkbook. Your final price will depend upon exchange rates, but it will be near $40,000. The Air Command International Command Elite Tandem and the Aircraft Designs Sportster, designed by Hollmann, are also partially enclosed, two-place gyroplanes. Powered by a 160-hp Lycoming engine, the Sportster has a 120-mph top speed. The Tandem can handle a 67-hp Rotax, 110-hp Hirth or 160-hp Mazda engine, so top speed ranges from 90 to 120 mph. Air Command says that adding fairings and side panels to improve aerodynamics can increase cruising speed by as much as 15 mph, to 100 mph. You have to build both gyroplanes. Aircraft Designs sells Sportster plans for $250, but does not offer a kit. Air Command offers only a kit. It costs $15,030 and includes the Rotax engine. The twin-seat Shadow from Vortech Inc. adds a touch of luxury with a fully enclosed and upholstered cabin. Powered by a Lycoming engine, this gyroplane has a top speed of 100 mph. The kit sells for $15,750, minus the engine and instruments. If you do not plan on carrying passengers, you have the option of flying a tractor- or pusher-style aircraft. The Little Wing Autogyros LW series and North American Rotorwerks Pitbull hearken back to the early days of gyroplane flight by putting the engine and prop in front of the pilot. Little Wing gyroplanes sell for $175 and a prewelded fuselage costs $2500. Front mounting means they can accept most small engines. A Subaru EA81 or comparable engine powers the Pitbull. The kit sells for $5900 plus the cost of the engine. Performance varies with engine selection. The Sport Copter Vortex and Winners Circle Engineering H-1 Racer offer two variations on the classic single-place pusher-prop gyroplane design. The Vortex follows the more conventional gyroplane design of putting the pilot forward and near the ground. The Racer raises the fuselage, permitting the use of a 60-in., three-blade prop. Both have about a 400-pound load capacity and a maximum speed of 100 mph. You can build the Racer from a $150 set of plans or a $6000 kit, excluding the engine. The Vortex sells only as a $19,500 kit, with the engine purchased separately. Or, you could follow the lead of Carl Schneider of Fort Madison, Iowa, and design your own gyrocycle. Space permits us to show only a sampling of the more than 40 different gyroplane designs that are currently on the market in the United States. The exact number changes as new designs evolve and others are retired. A full listing of suppliers whose gyroplanes pass muster with the Popular Rotorcraft Association can be found with the online version of this article at www.popularmechanics.com/science.