Vertical Take-off in a Gyro!

Fantastic video I found here of a guy called Clark Cogan performing a vertical take off in his gyrocopter using hydrogen peroxide rockets at the tips of the rotor blades.

I was surprised to see find that this was not a new idea and was famously tested on the Fairey Rotodyne (a 50-passenger carrying gyro) in 1957. This was a gyro that could cruise at 200mph! I mean, don’t you wish the sky was full of creatures like this:

I just love films like this. The optimism, confidence and brilliance of the engineering was astounding. Not to mention the voice-over. Class.

Hmm. Maybe the idea’s not dead after all…

(although I do suspect this may be computer animated

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