Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Two-seat gyrocopter

Power Plant:

(Mk IVP)

One 78 kw (105 hp) Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major I five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine

Specifications:

History:

Don Juan de le Cierva, the Spanish inventor of the first practical rotating wing, worked for many years on the development of autogyros, his work only ceasing with his tragic death in an air crash in 1936. However, in 1925 he was in the United Kingdom developing his designs, with most of his early successful gyrocopters being built by A V Roe & Company Ltd at Southampton in Hampshire. Cierva began experimenting with auto-rotation in 1920 with his Model C.1, which used the fuselage of a Deperdussin monoplane fitted with two sets of four contra-rotating blades and a fin. It proved impossible to fly and he proceeded to the Model C.2, which used the fuselage of a Hanriot biplane with a three-blade rotor. It flew but had many problems, being rebuilt nine times before it was abandoned in 1922.

The next design was the Model C.3 with articulated blades, these solving the problem of unequal lift, and was followed by the Model C.4 with a four-blade rotor which flew on 9 January 1923, eventually making a closed circuit flight of 4 km (2½ miles). By July 1923 the Model C.5 had been built with financial assistance from the Spanish Government, followed by the Model C.6 which used the fuselage of an Avro 504K. This was taken to the United Kingdom where it was demonstrated at Farnborough i  Hampshire on 10 October 1925 and was developed by Avro as the Types 574 and 575, which were known as the Cierva C.6C and Cierva C.6D. The former crashed in January 1927 but the Model C.6D was registered as G-EBTW and was the first of the series to carry a passenger, flying on 30 July 1926 at Hamble in  Hampshire. It was taken to Germany where it was flown by World War I ace Ernst Udet.

On 24 March 1926 Cierva Autogyro Company Ltd was formed, and a partnership was set up with A V Roe & Company Ltd. In the following year the British Air Ministry ordered an example known as the Model C.8L which used the fuselage of an Avro 504N and had an Armstrong Siddeley Lynx engine. A civil variant was also built as the Model C.8L Mk II becoming G-EBYY. This was flown by H J  ”Bert” Hinkler for the first time in May 1928 and competed in the Kings Cup Air Race on 20 July as Race aircraft No 3 but made a forced landing and had to retire. This aircraft later flew across the English Channel on 18 September 1928 and made a tour of Europe, covering 4,828 km (3,000 miles). It later was handed over to the French Weymann-Lepere company and was developed to the Model C.18. G-EBYY eventually joined the Musee de l’Air in Paris where it survives today.

In 1929 the Model C.19 appeared, design work commencing on 20 May that year. This differed from earlier models by having automatic starting of the main rotor, instead of the manual operation of a rope wound around the blade roots, the practice up to that stage. Eight weeks later the first of the C.19 series, known the Mk I, was displayed at the Olympia Air Show with a 60 kw (80 hp) Armstong Siddeley Genet II air-cooled radial engine. This was followed by the Mk II with a partly cowled 75 kw (100 hp) Genet Major 1 radial engine and a four-blade rotor of 9.14 m (30 ft) in diameter. As development progressed, pilots perfected a technique of landing slowly with a high angle-of-attack, and the tailwheel touching first. This resulted in the Mk III with upward-swept lower edges of the rudders. The rotor was also increased in diameter to 10.7 m (35 ft). By this time Pitcairn in the United States, Weymann-Pepere and Liore et Olivier in France were building autogyros; and Focke Wulf in Germany was building the C.19 Mk IV under licence.

In the United Kingdom the advent of the autogyro came to the notice of the police, some of the prejudices against the design disappearing, and it was used for a number of tasks, one Model C.19 Mk IV G-ABUF being used to monitor the 1933 Derby. At least 25 examples of the C.19 series were built.

One Model Mk III G-ABCK (c/n 5140) was imported to New Zealand where it was erected in the Canterbury Aero Club’s Wigram workshop in December 1930, being delivered to the North Island Safety Flying Association as ZK-ACL in December 1930. It was powered by an 82 kw (110 hp) Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major radial engine. It was flown by Robert Matheson. However, it suffered damage to the rotor blades at Invercargill in January 1931. It was out of the air until replacements arrived in April that year. The new blades were fitted but at Wanganui on 17 April 1931 it was badly damaged by high winds and, due to lack of spares, the gyrocopter could not be rebuilt. It was shipped back to the United Kingdom and its final fate is not known.

One Model C.19 Mk IVP was brought to Australia. This machine, also known as an Avro 620 G-ABUH (c/n 5153), was built for the Kent Flying Club at Bekesbourne and registered on 12 July 1932 with a 78 kw (105 hp) Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major engine. It was exported to Australia in December 1934, becoming VH-USO on 5 November 1934 with the Autogyro Corporation of Australia, Melbourne, VIC. However, on 15 June 1935 the rotor was damaged beyond repair in an attempted take-off and the Certificate of Registration lapsed on 4 November 1935. The ultimate fate of this machine is also not known.