Man completes first round-the-world autogyro flight
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
An autogyro (from Greek αὐτός and γύρος, "self-turning"), also known as a gyroplane or gyrocopter, is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, typically by an engine-driven propeller. While similar to a helicopter rotor in appearance, the autogyro's rotor must have air flowing across the rotor disc to generate rotation, and the air flows upwards through the rotor disc rather than down.
It's a little like the related (though different) question of "can you sail downwind faster than the wind is going" (and the answer is yes: https://inhabitat.com/wind-powered-vehicle-travels-faster-th... )
or you could fly in a large circle /s
Kidding aside, sounds like an epic achievement!
I heard from a private license pilot that these are very unsafe, but he told me that in 1990 but it sounds like things have changed.
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/46103/what-are-...
There was quite a discussion on rotary forum about safety.
https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/gyrocopter-safety-and-re...
Nope, compared to fixed-wing aircraft these things are still horribly unsafe.
The instability causing most of the crashes is now understood and prevented by construction. They are now considered no more dangerous than other light aircraft. That means that to be safe they must be operated by a well-trained pilot in safe weather conditions.
Some frequent causes of fixed-wing aircraft fatalities, such as engine failure, are much less worrisome in an autogyro, because they can land unpowered at very low speed.
I assume he didn't follow a great circle, so what is the minimum path length needed for a flight to be round-the-world?
> In Thailand, he even crashed into a lake.
So it wasn't a "flight"? More like a successive series of flights.
Not counting orbits, of course.
"Sanctioned by the FAI and the AOPA, the flight was the first successful aerial nonstop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the Earth that included two passes over the Equator (as opposed to shorter ostensible "circumnavigations" circling the North or South Pole). This feat has since been accomplished only one other time, by Steve Fossett in the Global Flyer."
This is a really funny way of describing what I assume was a great circle path. It's certainly possible to do a "shorter ostensible circumnavigation" that passes over the equator twice: take an axis through the earth that passes through the equator twice, and take a circular path around that axis of any size. It's only a bias that says such a path counts less than circling the North / South pole.
You can even circle one of the polls and cross the equator twice without it being a real circumnavigation. Fly a path around the Arctic circle, dip down just past the equator, and come straight back...
A good additional stipulation might be that the equatorial crossings must be separated by 180 degrees of longitude, plus or minus however tolerant you're willing to be.
I though it was made even more famous by Mad Max 2.
> Assaulted by popups.
> Closes article