 The autogyro (autogiro), invented in the early 1920s by Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish civil engineer-turned aeronautical engineer, has had  a chequered career but is now destined to be the aircraft of the future. Cierva's original name for the aircraft was Autogiro, indicating that the rotor turned by autogiration. This led some to call it the windmill plane.
In various parts of the world it has been described or named giro-plane, giro-copter, giro-glider and rotorcraft. Rotorcraft can also refer to all forms of helicopter, of which the autogiro was a forerunner. Cierva's development of the rotor system was instrumental in, even crucial to, the success of the helicopter.
|
|
