THE WINDMILL AEROPLANE.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1925, Page 4

THE WINDMILL AEROPLANE.

LONDON, October 21. Watched by the Air Minister, Sir Samuel Home, Sir Hugh Tronchard, Chief of the Air Staff, and other Air -Ministry Officials, Captain Frank Courtney gave an official demonstration yesterday at Laffan’s Plain, Farnborotigh, in the new ''auto-gyro ” flying machine invented by Senor Juan de la C'ierva. This machine dot's not possess the usual wings of an aei'oplane. Their )>lace is taken by an upright column above an ordinary fuselage carrying four narrow curved planes, set horizontally. and resembling the sails of a windmill. They are mounted on a ballbearing device and revolve quite freely and can move up and down as they revolve. Yesterday, after Mr Courtney bad taken his seat in the machine, men hauled on a wire rope wound round a framework beneath the vanes and set them in motion. Drawn forward l>\- its engine and air-screw in the normal way. the machine ran across the ground on its wheeled chassis. As it did so the rush of air increased the rate of spin oi the hig windmill above the pilot's head. As soon as it was turning rapidly its four curved blades, m their swift circular circular movement, exercised a lift sufficient to bear tile weight of the machine In flight. The pilot by an operation of bis elevators then rose .■.monthly into the air. The vanes as they spun adjusted themselves automatically to the air pressure in a manner which the inventor states is one of the secrets of ltts invent ion. After lie hail gained an altilude of about 2(1010 Captain Courtney made a wide turn, the windmill spinning smoothly in the air-flow above his head. He throttled down his engine, and the lour big blades began to turn more slowly in the decreased air pressure. The result was that the machine ■—still supported by the windmill in a parachute-like fashion- • began to sink slowly in an almost vertical path, it touched ground with a forward speed of tmlv a few miles an hour, and pulled up after running a few yards. ‘■The ‘Auto-giro’ is automatically stable." said .’senor (ierva, tile inventor. "It can alight safely and slowly should its engine fail. It ean be landed in a small field, or even on a housetop. It brings nearer the day when air machines will he operated from roof stages mounted above the centre of big i it ies.."