Why are so few gyrocopters developed?

[Joachim Colling]

To me the gyrocopter principle seems to be much cheaper (and safer?)
than the heliocopter. Why has development of medium and larger size
gyrocopters stopped? And smaller are also very few?
Joachim Colling
www.collings-system.se

[Andrew Crane]

"Joachim Colling" > wrote in message
...
> To me the gyrocopter principle seems to be much cheaper (and safer?)
> than the heliocopter. Why has development of medium and larger size
> gyrocopters stopped? And smaller are also very few?
> Joachim Colling

They take the worst aspects of fixed wing and rotary and combine them into
one machine. A helicopter is useful because it can perform vtol. However
this is at the cost of energy economy, high maintenance and slow forward
flight. The giro can't perform vtol but still suffers the downsides.

If I try very hard, I might just about see the point of the carter copter,
but that's not a full-time giro.

Regards
Andrew


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[Peter Wendell]

Andrew Crane wrote:
> "Joachim Colling" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>To me the gyrocopter principle seems to be much cheaper (and safer?)
>>than the heliocopter. Why has development of medium and larger size
>>gyrocopters stopped? And smaller are also very few?
>>Joachim Colling
>
>
> They take the worst aspects of fixed wing and rotary and combine them into
> one machine. A helicopter is useful because it can perform vtol. However
> this is at the cost of energy economy, high maintenance and slow forward
> flight. The giro can't perform vtol but still suffers the downsides.
>
> If I try very hard, I might just about see the point of the carter copter,
> but that's not a full-time giro.
>
> Regards
> Andrew
>
>

Well, that's certainly one way to look at it. Here's another. A properly
designed gyroplane is as stable and easy to fly as a Cessna 150,
maneuvers like a helicopter, and, with a rated pilot, is safer than
both. Although vertical takeoff can be nice, a zero ground roll landing
is far more important for safety (and it's really fun besides).

BTW Have you ever actually flown a gyroplane, or are you simply
repeating what you've read/been told?

There are actually a lot of interesting things happening in the
gyroplane world right now. Check out http://www.rotaryforum.com .

[Stuart & Kathryn Fields]

Peter: I am one of the survivors of the "Self Taught" school of Benson
gyrocopter flying. When I built my ship there was absolutely no way to get
dual. Both my wife and I soloed the Benson with a Hot McCullough engine and
never had any trouble. I got tired of the need to take it to the airport to
fly, and got into the helicopter arena. After two aborted attempts with the
Scorpion, I now fly a Baby Belle/ Safari and can't quite see going back to a
Gyro. You are definitely right though, the gyros are much easier to fly and
can make zero speed touch downs quite regularly. They are cheaper and
easier to maintain, but you just can't do what I can do with the helicopter.
If I'm buzzing a coyote den, I can stop, back up and just set there and
watch. This I've done with the airport coyote who just set there looking up
at me with his hair blowing about. Also I have a 40X40 launch pad that I
couldn't get the gyro off of without a significant wind.

--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine

[duggy]

dr igor bensen developed the B-8MH a gyro with coax rotors capable of
vtol and hover as well as autorotative flight ; shame it wasn't brought
along and refined as were the helicopters invented by his collegue dr
igor sikorsky ; for a pic and description :
http://avia.russian.ee/vertigo/bensen_hovergyro
-r.html


--
duggy
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