Gyrodyne

Common card · No. 464285

A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL heavier-than-air aircraft that uses a helicopter rotor system (either in unicopter, bicopter or multicopter forms) driven by its own engines only for takeoff, landing and hovering, and one or more conventional propellers or jet engines to provide thrust during forward flight. During cruising flight, the rotor(s) are left in unpowered autorotation like an autogyro (but unlike a compound helicopter, whose main rotor remains powered), and lift is provided by a combination of the airfoils on both the rotor(s) and fixed wings. The gyrodyne is one of a number of similar concepts (such as convertiplanes like tiltrotors and tiltwings) which attempt to combine the low-speed maneuverability of rotorcraft with the high airspeeds of conventional airplanes. The gyrodyne was invented by British engineer Dr. James Allan Jamieson Bennett, the chief technical officer of Cierva Autogiro, as an alternative to the helicopter, in response to an Air Ministry specification. The gyrodyne...

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