Word: autogiros
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When Inventor Edison saw and applauded the Pitcairn-Cierva autogiro at Newark last September many guessed, because it was only his second visit to any airport, that he had little knowledge of aeronautics. But Thomas Edison, like Leonardo da Vinci, attacked the problem of aerodynamics early in his inventive career. About 1880 he devised an airplane engine powered by nitroglycerin. A roll of ordinary ticker-tape, turned into guncotton, was fed between two copper rolls into the cylinder and exploded electrically. But when the engine itself exploded and injured an assistant, Edison abandoned the project. In 1910 he secured...
...Autogiro. Not to be confused with the helicopter is the Cierva Autogiro which, while capable of vertical descent, cannot take off without a short run and cannot hover indefinitely (TIME, Sept. 2). Officials of Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Co. of America declared last week that commercial production would be begun at Willow Grove, Pa., in August or September...
...dumbfounding that it caused the laughter of relief was Juan de la Cierva's Autogiro, which he drove himself, repeating the gooselike antics of his Bryn Athyn, Pa., demonstration the week before (TIME, Sept. 2). He landed in a 20-ft. chalked circle, a simple feat for his machine...
...high and flew her to about 90 m.p.h. At will he held her almost stationary in the air. His landing made spectators laugh. It was like a domestic goose hopping from a fence with wings spread, feet and tail reaching for the ground. He deflected the autogiro's tail planes downward. They brushed against the ground just before the wheels. Then to show off the machine's stability, he rose slightly. Then he descended, stopping in one demonstration, within a few inches, in none, over ten feet...
Harold F. Pitcairn has the U. S. rights to the autogiro manufacture and license. He is building four of them now at Bryn Athyn, all larger than the demonstration machine, all to carry Wright Whirlwinds. Last week's autogiro will be entered in the Guggenheim Fund safety contest, en trance to which closes in October. First prize is $100,000. Five other prizes are for $10,000 each. Chief contenders are the Cierva Autogiro and the Handley-Page slotted-wing plane. Only a Brunner-Winkle biplane of the 11 U. S. entries (including one of the Autogiros being built...