Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-20
The Autogyro.

characterized as one of the most re-
marSable achievements in the develop
ment of aviation and equal in impor-
lance to the Channel flight of Bleriot
in 1909, the WINDMILL autogyro plane
OF Juan de la Cierva, which rises ana
descends almost vertically, made sue
cessful trip on Tuesday from London
to Paris. Although four stops were
made en- route. the autogyro functioned
perfectly and its speed at times reached
better than one hundred miles an hour
The landing at LIE Bourget, outside of
Paris, was witnessed by several thou
sand persons and the peculiar looking
plane, coming almost straight down out
of the sky, stopped within few yards
of the point of contact with the earth.
The product of five years intensive
work on the part of its inventor and
the nearest approach to a workable
helicopter ever devised, the Windmill
has extremely small main wings. On
a mast above the ordinary airplane
fuselage are four enormous propeller
like blades which rotate above the
pilots cockpit. This autogyro, revolv-
ing at nine hundred revolutions min
ute, will carry the machine upward at
steep angle. Once aloft the forward
driving force is given by a regular motor
and propeller as in ordinary airplancs.
During the flight the autogyro takes
care of itself and the pilot is free to
navigate his plane and give his atten-
ton to the engine and instruments.
The. most remarkable part of the
Windmill is its landing facility. With
the huge propeller above his head ro-
tating slowly, the pilot may hover over
a field, picking out the exact spot on
which he wishes to land, and he needs
only few yards of level terrain on
which to do it. Once he has selected
the spot, he has only to let the ma
chine gently down until near the
ground, when few turns of the propel :
Ter take it forward a little before it
settles as lightly as bird. Those who
have flown in this queer contraption
say that the sense of security and sta
bility is extraordinary.
Ever since the first airplane of the
Wright brothers took the air over a
lonely strip of beach in North Carolina
man has dreamed of the vertically ris-
ing and descending flying machine. In
ventors in all parts of the world have
been striving to solve the problem
Senior Juan de la Cierva. former men,
Der of the Spanish Parliament, after in
tensive study. hit upon the plan of
combining a huge overhead propeller
with small spadelike wings on regu-
lar airplane fuselage, and Tuesdays
demonstration gave conclusive proc.
that his ideas are sound.
The take-off and the landing are tie
two most hazardous features of flying
in present-day planes. Great speed
fiat ground and large space are neces-
sary for both maneuvers. The impor-
lance of the autogyro development car
be appreciated, therefore, when it i;
realized that the aviator can ascend and
descend almost vertically at compar-
atively slow speed and with no more
than small space in which to operate
AS experiments continue improve
ments will doubtless be effected in thu
machine which so successfully negoti-
ated the Channel crossing. The world
will watch with interest future flights
of the airplane which threatens to rev.
olutionize the art of flying.