Letters to the Editor

Dear Georgina,

It is always a joy to receive Helicopter Life and I was interested indeed to read in the latest edition of your Flying Without Wings, in a Gyroplane.

I do not think you were really flying without wings because the term ‘Gyroplane’ infers a ‘turning wing’. As such it could also be applied to a helicopter.

I deplore the loss of the original and technically correct generic term for that class of aircraft. From the time that Juan de la Cierva had made such a successful rotary-winged aircraft they were ‘Autogyros’ implying ‘self turning’.

In the FAI, if one achieves a World Record with such an aircraft it is in the E-3 Class as an ‘Autogyro’.

Spelled with an ‘i’ rather that a ‘y’ as Autogiro, that is the trade name adopted by the Cierva derivatives...