cawimmer430

I just saw this on TV and it caught my interest. This is a light weight Gyrocopter that takes off like a light airplane and flies like a helicopter.

Top speed is around 240 km/h and the fuel consumption is an amazing: 12 L / hour @ 150 km/h cruising speed and the craft has a 60 liter fuel tank. Not bad at all for a flyable craft like this.

In order to fly it, you need around 30 flyinghours behind the controls of a light aircraft to get your pilots licence. Once this is completed, you need another 15 hours of schooling on the Gyrocopter, which is supposedly easy to fly.

The amazing thing about this aircraft is that it can fly in all kinds of weather and is "uncrashable". To demonstrate, the creaters of this craft (a German mechanic and a pilot), simulated an engine failure at 200 meters. The top rotor was still spinning due to a physics phenomenon who's name I can't pronounce (or remember). The main point is that this thing is safe.

The inventors are pushing for the mass production of this because they see it as a means of beating traffic on the Autobahns. It only needs 17 meters of runway to take off and 10 meters to land, so theoretically you can take off and land in the city with this thing!

So far, there are 20 private owners in all of Germany. The price for one Gyrocopter? 40,000 Euros.

Very interesting. Here's the official site.

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