Word: autogiros
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...about. One of the most beloved legends of radio concerned Uncle Don of WOR radio who finished a broadcast and sighed à la W.C. Fields: "That should hold the little bastards." The mike had been left open, the little bastards' parents wrote in, and Uncle Don's autogiro never again set down on the roof of Bamberger's department store. In a sense, that minuscule conflict has occurred ever since. Cynicism has animated most children's shows, from Howdy Doody to Magilla Gorilla. Bozo the Clown uttered fatuities between pitches in the '50s. The golden age of the '50s brought...
...many optimistic and thoroughly modern citizens, the American Dream of the 1930s included not only a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, but also an Autogiro in every backyard. Chickens and cars have proliferated, but the Autogiro-a prop-driven aircraft with a freewheeling rotor in place of a wing-has virtually disappeared, a victim of its own inefficiencies and the remarkable success of the helicopter. The dream may yet come true. California's McCulloch Aircraft Corp. has successfully test-flown a contemporary Autogiro that is safer than a conventional plane, less expensive than...
...first White House Autogiro landing was made April 22, 1931, when James Ray stepped out of a Pitcairn to receive the 1930 Collier Trophy from President Hoover. President Taft witnessed the first airplane landing there (by Harry Atwood...
...small wing and one or more propellers on a conventional helicopter. After the craft is in the air, the rotor is disconnected from the engine and the propellers take over. The rotor continues to spin, driven by the air rushing past it, like the rotor of an autogiro.* This "windmilling" supplies some lift; the wing provides the rest...
...throw" a rotor blade, with immediately disastrous results. (This may have been what happened at Seattle and Providence.) The small tail rotor can and sometimes does come off, or get damaged. Engine failure by itself is not too serious, since a helicopter with a dead rotor acts like an autogiro and windmills down to earth...