Thumpernator
Senior Heliman
Location: Senoia, Georgia, USA
My Posts This: Topic Forum | | Quote |
| That is the Primative Benson Gyrocopter from the 1950's, alot of people lost their lives trying to fly those things!, very dangerous!
|
That's not really true. The original Bensen (note spelling) had a thrust line really close to the Vertical CG. It's when people starting putting heavier engines and larger props on them that changed the thrust line to be a lot higher than the Verticle CG (VCG). With the high thrust line, if the pilot induced zero or negative G's with the prop producing thrust, the gyro would "bunt" over and it's all over.
Most of today's gyroplanes are designed with the proper thrust line. But there are still people out there who still don't want to believe the physics, or just don't understand, and they still fly the high thrust line machines.
I've built and flown several gyroplanes and hold a Commercial Gyroplane rating. Here is a picture of the last gyro I built and flew.
 |
