Cierva C.6

The Cierva C.6 was a gyrocopter, also known as autogyro or gyrocopter, a rotary-wing aircraft of the Spanish designer Don Juan de la Cierva.

C.6 A and C.6B

De la Cierva had already drawn attention to themselves by his experiments with Giro in the past and therefore got for the further development of these devices support from the Spanish government. So that he could one autogyro based on the Avro 504 K with a 82 kW (112 hp) payable Le Rhone engine develop.

The freed the wing fuselage of the 504 was given a broader reasons of stability, suspension, stub wings which acted as ailerons, and a four -blade propeller. The ailerons were parts of a Bristol fighter.

The rotor was unpowered and was only offset by the forward motion of the device in rotation.

The engine was mounted in the Spanish military aircraft factory in Madrid.

The first flight of the Cierva C.6 A was in May 1924 further test flights were carried out until 9 December 1924. On the last day of testing an altitude of about 200 meters was achieved at approximately vertical takeoff and one landing just such. The pilot had, according to the records of a perfect control of the device to about 25 km / h It was briefly reaches a top speed in the vertical flight of 109 km / h.

With the C.6 A of the first flight of an autogyro route over a distance of approximately 12 kilometers was carried out on 12 December 1924.

An identical with the C.6 A device, called C.6B was manufactured in 1925.

More versions

Cierva C.6C

The success of Cierva moved the British Air Ministry to appoint two such machines at Avro.

The first machine, Cierva C.6C, increased with the civil registration G - EBTW on June 19, 1926 on its maiden flight in Hamble. A little later, stub wings were retrofitted with ailerons to increase the maneuverability. The C.6C crashed on January 7, 1927. Due to the close cooperation and license agreements between de la Cierva and Avro - Cierva all autogiros received from the C.6C also an Avro type designation. So the C.6C was also known as the Avro 574.

Cierva C.6D

The Cierva C.6D ( Avro 587 ) is considered the first two-seat autogyro in the world. Because of the higher payload he had a more powerful engine than its predecessors, a Clerget engine with 97 kW (132 hp). Controls were available only at the rear space.

On July 29, 1926, the C.6D launched its first flight to just one day later perform the first flight with two people; Juan de la Cierva himself was the passenger.

Other nations have shown interest in this unit: on September 5, 1926 Ernst Udet flew the Cierva C.6D in Berlin -Tempelhof.

Cierva C.8R

The C.6D was rebuilt on October 15, 1926 Cierva C.8R. This machine was flown by Avro Chief Test Pilot Bert Hinkler in various installations, beginning in 1927 with an oversized 3 -blade rotor and in September 1927 with a two -blade rotor. Due to strong vibrations was taken distance from the two -blade rotor.

Cierva C.8 V

Also took place in 1926, the conversion of a two-seat Avro 552 A with a 134 kW ( 182 hp ) payable Wolseley Viper engine to a Giro. This machine was designated the Cierva C.8 V or 586 Avro It differed from the C.8R by a dorsal fin on the fuselage and controls on the front seat

Later, a three-legged landing gear was installed in June 1927 and a four-wheel main landing gear. In August 1927, the original two-wheeled chassis was re-installed. The machine with the civil code was built back in 1930 again by an autogyro in the Avro 552 A.

About 500 pieces of the model Cierva C6 were produced, many of licensed establishments in the UK, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States