Photograph:
An Autogyro Europe MT-03S G-3456 at Narromine, NSW in 2007 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
Germany
Description:
Two-seat light sport gyrocopter
Power Plant:
One 75 kw (100 hp) Rotax 912ULS four-cylinder horizontally-opposed liquid-and-air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Rotor diameter: 8.4 m (27 ft 6¾ in)
- Length: 5.1 m (16 ft 8¾ in)
- Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6¼ in)
- Max speed: 162 km/h (101 mph)
- Max cruising speed: 150 km/h (93 mph)
- Economical cruising speed: 130 km/h (81 mph)
- Rate of climb: 420 m/min (1,378 ft/min)
- Range: 300 km (186 miles)
- Take-off run: 10 m to 70 m (33 ft to 230 ft)
- Landing run: 0 m to 15 m (0 ft to 49 ft)
- Fuel capacity: 69 litres (15 Imp gals)
- Empty weight: 246 kg (542 lb)
- Payload: 211 kg (465 lb)
- Loaded weight: 450 kg (992 lb)
History:
Autogyros Aviacion of Madrid, Spain, has for some years been designing and developing light autogyros for the light sport aircraft market. In later years it has had available a number of models, including the ELA-07, a two-seat machine built of welded stainless steel tube with a composite pod fuselage which was usually fitted with either the Rotax 912S or the turbocharged 914 engine and had a pre-rotor.
Developed from this was the MT-03, a high-performance two-seat gyrocopter produced by AutoGyro Europe at its Hildesheim facility in Germany on behalf of AutoGyro Europe GmbH. The prototype (D-MILL) was first flown in 2003. It was designed by AutoGyro Europe GmbH and HTC in 2002 and was described as an “Ultraleicht Tragschrauber”, being the first gyrocopter to receive certification in Germany from the DULV, the German Microlight Association. It was of all metal construction and could be built with open cockpits or with a fuselage with open cockpits and composite windscreens. Power plant was usually the Rotax 912 or 912S engine, but the 914 engine could also be installed.
The rotor-system used aluminium extruded anodized NACA 8 H 12 blades developed and built by Air Copter. The blades waere available in two sizes, 6.5 m (21 ft 3 in) or 8.4 m (27 ft 6 in). The engine propeller blades were a composite three-blade unit.
The first example seen in this region became ZK-RGG (c/n 06NZ001) in New Zealand and was registered to Gyrate NZ of Mt Maunganui , followed by ZK-RSL (c/n NZ003) at Taupo in April 2008.
A number of examples have been imported to Australia by Sky Ranch of Manilla, NSW, ten being imported by mid-2007, and two of these were used in a 13,500 km (8,389 miles) journey around Australia during 2007.