Gyrocopters for Everyone

Not everybody knows, that "gyrocopter", "gyroplane", "autogiro" and "autogyro" all mean the same thing. As other kinds of gliders, airplanes, helicopters and gyroplanes, gyrocopters use wings to fly. No aircraft but helicopters and autogyros have the wings mounted on pylons and spin in circles. Moreover, they get into the sky the same way: rapid move of the wing through the air produces both helicopter and gyrocopter lift. The rotating wings - rotors - of the gyroplane are free-spinning, meaning not driven by the engine (as by helicopters), because it needs very little forward speed to stay airborne.

The cardinal virtue of the gyroplane is that they do nearly everything a helicopter can do, but are less expensive and definitely safer than any other kind of flying machine. Even the most mundane gyroplanes are true STOL (Short Take-Off/Landing) vehicles, but they can be configured to take-off and land with no ground-roll at all. Even more - their exceptional STOL capabilities make them terrific for "bush" or water operations. Helicopters are vastly more mechanically complex than any other kind of aircraft and they have a lot of critically interdependent moving parts. That's why they cost several times as much to purchase and maintain as a same-sized gyroplane. Meanwhile, many gyroplanes cost less than some motorcycles, and because they fly in a constant state of autorotation, even a total engine failure results in a parachute-like descent, making them the safest of all aircraft.

A typical gyroplane can stay aloft at 5 to 10 knots airspeed, and even a small gyroplane (piloted by an experienced pilot) can be operated safely under high wind conditions that make gliders, ultra-lights, blimps, balloons, space launches and most private airplanes stay on the ground. Gyroplanes are capable of the same forward speeds as helicopters. This is so because of the rotating wings and their "wing-loading" ("wind loading" determines how many pounds of an aircrafts total weight are supported by each square foot of its wings). Gyroplanes have very high wing-loading because their rotorblades have so little total area, using rotational speed rather than size to generate lift. So gyroplanes are really exceptional aircraft.

Gyroplanes are simple and cheap to own, fly, maintain, transport and store. They're easy to tow. They can use skis for snow take-off and landing. They can be equipped with amphibious floats for water operations, and although they could have sophisticated avionics, autopilots and de-icing gear. They're highly flexible and very practical. Because of technological advances used in 3rd - and 4th generation equipment like the Sport Copter series, they've become so flexible and practical that you're going to be seeing a lot more of them; many of them performing important commercial tasks perhaps even military tasks that have heretofore been the domain of airplanes and helicopters.

Even for aviation community, the gyroplane has been not very well known, despite the fact that it first appeared in 1923, and for a time it enjoyed a big popularity. But then the first successful helicopters emerged during the war years of the late 1930's. Helicopters could hover and the gyroplane couldn't, and airplanes could go much faster than either of them. So for decades an aviation industry left gyroplane development - still in its infancy - in a state of virtual suspended animation. And that's the way things stood until the late 1980's, when the elements of a renaissance in gyroplane development, popularity and sales finally became clearly evident.

Sport Copter, Inc. is only one small part of the admittedly brief yet engagingly interesting story of gyroplanes, but part of the satisfaction we derive from our work is the constant, exciting awareness that we're still the best part of that story, because we know we design and built the finest gyroplanes in the world.

Source: www.sportcopter.com