Certainly an interesting development. It would be interesting to note how much more training a soldier would need to be able to fly the autogyro vs. Parachute or Glider pilot training. The trouble with this method is that it would have required one tow aircraft to tow one or two autogyros. It's not a very efficient way to transport quantities of troops to a landing zone. It would probably have been better to invest more effort into making steerable parachutes during the war. Most autogyros were only designed for one or two people, but what would have happened if one could have been designed to carry the equivalent of a small to medium glider? It is always the landings that present the greatest problem and casualties when using gliders and an autogyro may have been able to reduce the landing runway length required. Essentially, what we would be looking at is an unpowered helicopter just at the time that the helicopter was being developed. I would also like to mention that the U-Boats did have a very small autogyro developed to assist with spotting shipping and convoys, but the improvements to anti-submarine forces from 1943 onwards made a surfaced U-Boat in daylight, a very risky proposition and a U-Boat with a towed autogyro made for an even more dangerous situation both for the pilot and the U-Boat. Mark from Melbourne Australia
You forgot to mention the evaluation of the Rotachute y the US and Igor Bensen who copied it and went on to develop the modern Gyro Copter. The Rotachute, whilst not filling the niche intended resulted in a successful family of aircraft.
Certainly an interesting development. It would be interesting to note how much more training a soldier would need to be able to fly the autogyro vs. Parachute or Glider pilot training. The trouble with this method is that it would have required one tow aircraft to tow one or two autogyros. It's not a very efficient way to transport quantities of troops to a landing zone. It would probably have been better to invest more effort into making steerable parachutes during the war. Most autogyros were only designed for one or two people, but what would have happened if one could have been designed to carry the equivalent of a small to medium glider? It is always the landings that present the greatest problem and casualties when using gliders and an autogyro may have been able to reduce the landing runway length required.
Essentially, what we would be looking at is an unpowered helicopter just at the time that the helicopter was being developed.
I would also like to mention that the U-Boats did have a very small autogyro developed to assist with spotting shipping and convoys, but the improvements to anti-submarine forces from 1943 onwards made a surfaced U-Boat in daylight, a very risky proposition and a U-Boat with a towed autogyro made for an even more dangerous situation both for the pilot and the U-Boat.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
You forgot to mention the evaluation of the Rotachute y the US and Igor Bensen who copied it and went on to develop the modern Gyro Copter. The Rotachute, whilst not filling the niche intended resulted in a successful family of aircraft.
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