Autogyros

A simple and easy to fly autogyro can be made from a lightly built trainer, in this case a .15 to .25 size model, a stub wing, and simple wooden rotors.I made a few of these and they were fun to fly.
The stub wing can be built like a conventional wing, say 20 cm chord and 63 cm span. Dihedral may be the
Proof of the pudding !

same as in a conventional trainer without ailerons, as it works in the same way. The rotor blades are from 3mm hard balsa sheet 4,5 x 30 cm. Eight rotorblades are made, as are four 6 cm dia discs from 1,5 mm plywood. Small ballbearings, two in each rotor will be needed, and as axels M4 or M5 threadbar depending on the size of the bearings will do nicely. Rings from 1,5 mm plywood keeps the bearings in place.

    The axles are bound and epoxied to the stub wing to give the rotors about 5 degrees angle of incidence. The rotorblades are given negative incidence ( pitch ) by gluing them over each other. This gives a little too much incidence, but it works. Make one right (for clockwise rotation ) and one left rotor ( for counterclockwise rotation ).

    Observe that this is not considered a true autogyro as the stub wing gives part of the lift, and these paddle shaped rotorblades aren´t very effective. This is a simple and fun way to make an autogyro, and who cares if it´s considered cheating!
    Better rotors and a lightly built airframe are a must to achieve successful flight without the stub wing.

The blue autogyro here flew with outriggers made from thin aluminum tubing. It flew, but it's a .10 or .15 size model fuselage, and it required a .40 to fly with rotors. And boy, was it fun!!!
If you build one of these, run the starboard rotor turning clockwise, in other words, outer rotorblades going rearward. This will make for a nice flying model. The opposite rotation makes for a more unstable plane.

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		A simple and easy to fly autogyro can be made from a lightly built trainer, in this case a .15 to .25 size model, a stub wing, and simple wooden rotors.I made a few of these and they were fun to fly. The stub wing can be built like a conventional wing, say 20 cm chord and 63 cm span. Dihedral may be the
	same as in a conventional trainer without ailerons, as it works in the same way. The rotor blades are from 3mm hard balsa sheet 4,5 x 30 cm. Eight rotorblades are made, as are four 6 cm dia discs from 1,5 mm plywood. Small ballbearings, two in each rotor will be needed, and as axels M4 or M5 threadbar depending on the size of the bearings will do nicely. Rings from 1,5 mm plywood keeps the bearings in place.
		The axles are bound and epoxied to the stub wing to give the rotors about 5 degrees angle of incidence. The rotorblades are given negative incidence ( pitch ) by gluing them over each other. This gives a little too much incidence, but it works. Make one right (for clockwise rotation ) and one left rotor ( for counterclockwise rotation ).
	Observe that this is not considered a true autogyro as the stub wing gives part of the lift, and these paddle shaped rotorblades aren´t very effective. This is a simple and fun way to make an autogyro, and who cares if it´s considered cheating! Better rotors and a lightly built airframe are a must to achieve successful flight without the stub wing.