VERTICAL TAKE-OFF GYROPLANE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22546, 13 April 1935, Page 20

VERTICAL TAKE-OFF GYROPLANE

20 FEET "JUMPS" (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 23. Announcement that an autogyro "windmill " plane had successfully made direct take-offs without any preliminary forward run over the ground was made by Mr Juan de la Cierva, the Spanish inventor of the autogyro, in a recent lecture before the Royal Aeronautical Society. Further experiments are being conducted. When fully developed, the machine, which is lifted by rotating vanes instead of the fixed wings of the ordinary aeroplane, should be able to jump high enough in the initial impetus of take-off to clear small houses and trees from a distance of a few yards. This new attribute of the autogyro is gained without abandonment of any of the essential features of the machine. It does not become a helicopter, in which a power-driven screw lifts the machine vertically. The rotor consists in a svstem of variable-pitch blades or vanes. These blades are set to zero pitch on the ground, and are spun at high speed by the engine, to which they are temporarily connected through a clutch and gearing. When a given speed of rotation is attained the engine is declutched, the pitch of the blades is increased to normal, and the machine spins itself up into the air. Mr de la Cievra showed a film of an experimental machine which took off directly in no wind. Chocks were placed in front of the wheels to hold the craft stationary. The mechanism of the pitch change operates automatically, and the actual manoeuvre is stated to be simple and pleasant. The inventor stated that a large number of autogyro machines manufactured by the Avro Company, which acquired a license from him last year, was now in service in Great Britain and in many other parts of the world. The machine at present marketed is the two-seater C. 30 type, powered with a Siddeley Genet Major 140 h.p. radial motor. It has direct control, and employs no rudder, elevators, or ailerons. _ Full control in every evolution is provided by movement of a single lever which changes the angle of tilt of the rotor axis relative to the fuselage. ANYWHERE AN AERODROME.

Mr de la Cierva believes that successful development of the direct take-off machine —work on which he is now en-o-ar'ed—will allow use of fields with any kiiid of surface (ploughed, stony, or marshy) as " aerodromes." He considers'roof landings and ascents practical propositions, " in certain cases at least. Initial take-off jumps up to heights of UjC order of GO to 100 feet are theoretically possible, but he thinks that for practical uses an initial jump of some 20 feet is all that is necessary.