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To: GenXPolymath

“Gyrodynes are in auto rotation from before they leave the ground and 100% of the time in the air they are zero zero safe.”

As long as they have a safe forward velocity.


35 posted on 03/13/2026 9:12:21 AM PDT by TexasGator (111'1/11.1II11.X11111.1~I11:/)
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To: TexasGator

Prespun powered rotor gyrodynes are fully spun up prior to take off they can do zero length jump takeoffs due to this fact. Once airborne they will glide down from any height and can do a zero length touchdown again because their rotor was spun up prior to flight. You cannot bring a gyrodyne of this type to zero velocity in air with its rotor not spinning even in a vertical descent the airflow upwards will maintain it’s rotor rpm the pilot controls rpm in that case via collective control which is also what separates a gyrodyne from an autogyro. Full collective control and most have fore and aft pitby control with some having full swashplate pitch control in that case hovering under power is possible such as the second example in the link above. Gyrodyne not autogyro important differences.

I have hundreds of hours in helos and single and twin aircraft. My BIL is a flight engineer/test pilot and certified flight instructor fam owns two planes, two helos as well on our compounds in very rural Texas and Washington State, literally SHTF set ups.

The type of gyrodyne with powered rotors is zero zero safe that’s the whole point it cannot leave the ground until it’s rotor is at full rpm it’s designed for a zero length take off like a helo. There is a video on the first link of a small one doing jump takeoff and zero length landings that one didn’t even have the anti torque for hovering set up like the better version does.

With modern computers no need for a physical link to an anti torque rotor just reverse the pitch of one of four flight props and soon the main rotor with a dedicated electric motor balance the two via software and rate gyros in the IMU to sense yaw rates. This would allow for automated hovering too. Add in WAAS and GBAS both submeter GPS you can hold in zero visibility a spot in XYZ space or land into full brown out soup with said GPS it’s basically class III INS and helos are allowed to do zero vis landings or take offs using class III.


36 posted on 03/13/2026 9:31:11 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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