Gyrocopters or autogyros: affordable rotorwing flying
Although working on rather different principles than the helicopter, the gyrocopter or autogyro sure
is a rotorwing aircraft. No, you can't hover a gyrocopter nor will it let you take off vertically - but you sure can make safe vertical landings with your autogyro!
That's the good news - now comes the "bad". Please bear in mind that gyrocopters for sale are relatively rare occurrences. There aren't so many around to begin with, and those that come on the market don't tend to stay there long, but are grabbed pretty quickly. So sometimes there aren't any for sale here. In that case don't forget to come back: every now and then you'll find new gyrocopters on this page. Or, of course, you can have a look at our
main rotorwing page - maybe you'd prefer an Apache after all (wide grin)! By the way: the official FAA name for what we usually call gyrocopters, is gyroplanes.
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How the gyrocopter entered the scene
Although the autogyro concept is far from new, its popularity only began in the 1950s when the Bensen Aircraft Corporation ore or less burst into the sport aviation scene with their ground-breaking
Gyrocopters and
Gyrogliders. When the brilliant engineer behind this success, Dr. Igor Bensen, introduced the
B-7 Gyroglider (1955), its simplicity of design and ease of flight immediately captured the public's imagination. The
B-7 had no engine but was towed into the air kind of like a kite. Shortly afterwards the engine-powered
B-7M Gyrocopter was introduced and a new age of powered homebuilt aircraft had descended upon flight-minded humanity. Bensen's revolutionary designs have been copied and modified, but, in the opinion of many, never surpassed.
There had been earlier Bensons, of course: the
B-6 Gyro-Glider (left), created in 1953, was one of the first Bensen design to come to the public's attention. Its rotorblades
are free spinning in response to the movement of air over their surface - very much like the propellor of a toy pinwheel. With a relatively modest forward tow speed (by car or boat) of about 23 mph, the rotorblades reached a speed of about 250 mph, providing lift for the
Glider to take-off. The rotorblades have a fixed, built-in pitch, so all the pilot needs to do is steer the
Glider with the handlebars almost as one would steer a bike. Once airborne, the tow-line is released for a free and controlled flight - a flight that can last 15 minutes or longer. Indeed, even with a relatively mild wind of perhaps 23 mph, the
B-6 can take off from standstill like a kite!
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