FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0033.PDF
JANUARY 8TH, 1948 FLIGHT 27 THE FIRST AUTOGIRO : The C.I had superimposed contra-rotating rigid rotors. (Inset) The late Senor Juan de la Cierva. n Memory of a Pioneer Work on Rotating-wing Aircraft ^- ^ ^ , TOMORROW, January gth, is the 25th anniversaryof the first successful flight made by Senor Juande la Cierva in the type of aircraft which later became familiar as the Autogiro. It is thus fitting thatwe should pay a tribute to the man who laid the founda- tions for all subsequent rotary-wing development, including-the modern helicopter, and whose perseverance, in spite sfef all obstacles, led him so far aloryf^he ro^id to completejpuccess before his untimely dea£& in -a«i ^airline accident anear Croydpn in December, 1936. His remains, after in-terment in England, were flown to his n&pr*e Spaiii in JOctbber, 1946. . v "' v Juan de la Cierva was interested in flying from hood. The many crashes due4o stalling soon led him to 'fiioughts of other means of^obtaining lift, and the rotor isvas the result.I- The first jmachine had two superimposed contra-rotatingrotors, but it was found that there was too much interfer-ence between them, and Cierva turned his attention tothe single-rotor Autogiro. The "Second machine had a three-;t>laded rotor with rigid blades "(the idea of the '' flappinguhinge " did not occur to him tin til early 1922). As in the.first and all subsequent ^machines, the rotor auto-t rotated and was not-driven by the engine. It was found that The final stage. A C.30 mak- ing a jump start straight off the ground. f'' although lift could be obtained the rigid rotor blades tiltedthe machine to the right. In the C.3 Cierva used a five- bladed rotor, and the elevator was designed for its twohalves to work independently and in opposite directions so as to counteract the tilting tendency. This scheme wasnot, however, a complete success, Articulated Rotor As already mentioned, the idea of hinged blades wasconceived in 1922, and the C.4 had this feature incor- porated in its four-bladed rotor. It was found, however,that the force required by the pilot to counteract the tilting tendency was too great, and in the C.5 (a three-
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
