Was the autogyro merely a stepping-stone to the helicopter and is it therefore outmoded technology?
Retired aerodynamicist and aircraft designer Arthur W J G Ord-Hume thinks not and tells us why. THE quest for vertical flight via a powered rotor pre-dates the autogyro by many years, with Leonardo da Vinci among the first with the idea in the 15th century. It periodically occupied the minds of others down the years. The first recorded ascent in a rotary winged flying machine was made by Etienne Oemichen on April 14, 1924 but such pioneering efforts were blighted by a common defect – uncertainty of control. Getting into the air was the easy bit. Maintaining control and following a desired path was another. The autogyro was the newcomer into this arena of experiment. It was the creation of Spanish-born Juan de la Cierva, a brilliant mathematician who taught himself his own special branch of aerodynamics through prolonged experiment and much trial and error. Cierva invested only in the perfection of a rotor system. For the rest he cut costs and used readily available components from exis
