auto-gyro

[Pyrate Jim]

I watched an old 007 clip. What else did I get?
Links to some fun and interesting things. Like this from 1931?
How The Auto-Giro Works (1931)

The man who built and piloted the one in the bond movie, He apparently also built and used others in cinematography. Flying cameras.
British Wing Commander Ken Wallis bought the plans from a magazine while visiting America. Before I was born, near 70 years ago.
Wing Commander Ken Wallis MBE and his autogyros

Besides astonishment over the fact it was a kit you could build in a garage, hit me at about 16:40 in. When he spoke of how far he flew that day.
10 times around a 100 Km course. 740 miles. Without landing.
How much fuel did it carry? Didn't look like high capacity. A 07:00 pause shows a fuel tank maybe 10 gallons.

Even today, you can find plans, kits, or fully built online. Heck, you can get them delivered from Walmart.
auto-gyro plans and kits - Search

Maybe not be practical but looks like a whole lot of fun.

[DocsMachine]

Local guy I knew- I bought a lathe from him- was rebuilding one. All I recall about it was it had an opposed-twin air-cooled Bombardier engine, and I'm pretty sure he said it was originally made in 1969.

Dunno if he ever got it off the ground. He was also building a from-scratch single-seat airplane, like a Cessna, and did, in fact, fly that at least once. He passed away a number of years ago, and I have no idea what happened to all his extensive tools, nor the stuff he'd restored. (MGB kit car, Farmall tractor, the AutoGyro, the plane, etc.)

Doc.

[Chuck E Ducky]

They are pretty popular in the Ultralight / Experimental Aircraft field. The ability to land vertically is pretty cool. They still need a good amount of room to take off though.

[DocsMachine]

Can they land vertically? I thought they still needed some airspeed so the rotor can work like a wing... Although now that I think about it, I suppose "down" produces enough airspeed. After all, in a powered helicopter, they can 'auto rotate' safely to the ground if the engine fails.

... I need to go watch The Road Warrior again.

Doc.

[Chuck E Ducky]

They will AutoRotor like a chopper.