CIERVA C.19 and C.30 AUTOGIROS

Title: Cierva Autogiro No’s 1 and 2

The modern autogiro (also known as the gyrocopter) was invented by Juan De L Cierva, a Spanish engineer and aviation enthusiast. After witnessing an aircraft design of his crash after stalling, he became interested in aircraft operation at low speed, and began the development of aircraft fitted with a lifting rotor. Early work took place in Spain, but in 1925 he brought his C.6 model to England. It was based on the Avro 504 fuselage, and started a long partnership between Avro and Cierva. The success of the C.6 lead to the establishment of the Cierva Autogiro Co in England which then became the centre of autogiro development.

The C.19 first flew in 1929 and became the most successful of the early Cierva designs. Its principle new engineering feature was the ability to spin up the rotor aerodynamically thus making the machine independent of ground crew when starting. Around 30 examples were built in England by Avro, and licences were issued for manufacture in Germany by Focke-Wulfe and in France by Loire et Olivier.

The C.30 was the most widely produced Cierva model and the first design to introduce the “direct control” concept, where the pilot held a control stick attached directly to the rotor head. It first flew in 1933 and Avro produced 78 examples, 12 of which saw service with the RAF was the Avro 671 Rota I. Another 40 were built in Germany and 25 were built in France. Unfortunately Senor Cierva was killed in an airliner crash in 1936 and subsequent development of the autogiro was overtaken by the rapid development of helicopters.

We offer two titles covering the Cierva Autogiros, the first covers the C.19 Autogiro and the second covers the C.30 Autogiro. Each title includes a comprehensive flight and maintenance manual (published as a hardback book) for the type along with a brochure and a NACA descriptive aircraft circular. The files have been scanned from the original flight manuals and retain any colour pages. Each title is US$9.95.