Autogyro Model

[John Daniels]

After watching Mad Max; Road Warrior, I felt compelled to build an autogyro.

The models features are;

Fully articulated rotor head, controlled from the stick in the cabin

Functioning rudders and turning front wheel, connected to the rudder pedals

Four cylinder horizontally opposed aviation engine, connected to the propeller

Working doors

Highly detailed engine compartment

Removable engine and main rotor assembly

Working lights

Removable side panels, for showing off the engine details

I find it hard to believe how easily this model came together. All of the components just flowed together during the build. As you can probably tell my autogyro model looks quite a bit different than the autogyro in Mad Max. Initially I wanted to build an open framed model, as the build progressed it became apparent that it would be easier to incorporate all of the mechanisms into a full bodied model, and here is the result. I tried to keep the level of details high, and I think that I succeeded.

For ease of operation (read, play ability), the propeller, engine and, main rotor are all connected together. There is also the option to insert a crank into the starboard side of the model, to spin all three at the same time.

If there is enough interest I can film a video of the models functions.

I hope that you enjoyed looking at my model.

~John

P.S. I am sorry about the fuzziness in some of the photo's. My computer isn't back up to full speed yet, so I can't use it as a remote control for my camera.

Edited January 11, 2016 by John Daniels

[Josephiah]

That's a lovely piece of work - and yes, I'd like to see a video of all the functions working!

[Jeroen Ottens]

Well shaped, cool helicopter. A lot of features for the size of the packages and a very smooth, flowing exterior design

Next challenge of course is to have an actual swashplate in there

[9 fingers]

Fantastic. And yes, please make a video. On the pictures i dont se much functions.

[John Daniels]

That's a lovely piece of work - and yes, I'd like to see a video of all the functions working!

Fantastic. And yes, please make a video. On the pictures i dont se much functions.

Thank you! A video is on the way.

Well shaped, cool helicopter. A lot of features for the size of the packages and a very smooth, flowing exterior design

Next challenge of course is to have an actual swashplate in there

Thank you Jeroen! One of the bonuses of building an autogyro instead of a helicopter is the fact that most models do not have a swashplate. They usually just have a tilting rotor head. There is a model that the U.S. Military produced that does have a swashplate, with all of the cyclic and collective controls. It also had an articulated prop, allowing the operator to flatten both sets of control surfaces. And with the pre rotator that they installed which increased rotor speed to 327 rpm, instead of the usual 200rpm during flight (from autorotation). So using the force stored in the rotor blades they could perform vertical take offs, instead of needing a short runway.

I would actually like to build the Military version, so it might make a nice second generation model.