IIRC, the point of having the Gyro Captain in The Road Warrior was that he wasn’t dependent on gasoline for transportation, as the whole plot was premised on scarcity of gasoline. His autogyro apparently wasn’t powered by gasoline. So what did power it?
I can grasp that the structure was ultralight, made of hollow tubing, etc. But how did he even get the contraption off the ground, let alone keep it aloft?
The autogyro had been invented circa 1930, but never really caught on, despite its apparent advantage of fuel economy. I first learned of it in a book on Salvador Dalí, of all the wacky people. Apparently Dalí was friends with a fellow Catalan who flew an autogyro. His picture appeared on a Spanish postage stamp. My guess why the autogyro hasn’t been used much: if a high wind suddenly kicked up, you could be in serious trouble.
I don’t remember anything about the autogyro not needing gasoline. In fact, the Gyrocaptain tried to rob Max of his gasoline (and his car, but he was lusty about the big gas tanks) at their first meeting, which would lead me to believe that he did need the gas.
An autogyro would need some kind of fuel to get anywhere, though it could conceivably be a very fuel efficient vehicle.
I can’t answer the OP, but the autogyro was invented by Juan De La Cierva, born in Murcia, Spain. His idea was to make an aircraft that would not stall (a friend had died as a result of a stall.)
My understanding is that autogyros are extremely stable, making them good personal craft and lousy at aerobatics. I’m sure someone else can elaborate.
So if the autogyro is so stable and reliable as personal transportation (not to speak of fuel-efficient), why haven’t they been used more? Just picture yourself flying to work in the morning, soaring over the traffic jams, laughing at the poor schnooks stuck in traffic. And when you get to work, it takes up a smaller footprint in the parking lot than an car.
Getting a pilot’s licence requires a lot of training.
Autogyros need a runway to take off and land. Unless you work at or very close to an airport, and also live near one, commuting to work in any kind of flying vehicle wouldn’t be practical at all.
I’m not even sure there exists a commercially available autogyro. If you’re mechanically inclined, you can get plans for a decent one at http://www.prismz.com and possibly elsewhere.
I had a friend who was very interested in getting an autogyro at one point and he went with his grilfriend out to Lancaster, CA to watch a bunch of people all tooling around in the desert with their home built contraptions. All I can tell you is that they are definitely NOT stable. They are basically just an unpowered helicopter blade which creates lift from the forward momentum of the rear mounted propeller.
My friend indicated they did need some room to take off, but very little depending on the engine providing the forward momentum. He specifically told me you DO NOT need a pilot’s license to fly one because they get around the problem of being called a plane through some loophole (I think it relates to their light wait and overall size.
The thing that changed his mind was when he saw two of these guys wildly eat shit in the sand and get carted off to the hospital with plenty-o’-broken bones. One guy also practically lost a finger starting his rear propeller.
This is always the problem with the idea of the ‘flying car’. Think about it. Everyone at some point in their life is either in a car accident, has a car konk out on them, or has some other ‘interruption of service’ problem that causes you to lose power to your car. No big deal, except that in the flying car, you get the added luxury of plummeting to Earth and getting maimed or killed. What a bonus.
Yes you do. You might be able to get around licensing if the gyrocopter could fall under the Ultralight class, but generally speaking you do need a license. In the “Ratings and Limitations” section, it will say “ROTORCRAFT - GYROCOPTER”. It takes a minimum of 20 dual hours and 20 solo hours, plus completion of some sort of ground school and a written test to earn your license.