Readable Giro

At Willow Grove, Pa. last week, horses shied, humans stared, as the world's first "readable'' autogiro was successfully demonstrated. With its propeller still and its three 16-ft. rotor-blades folded back like a closed fan, it chugged along the streets of this placid Philadelphia suburb at 25 m.p.h. until the driver decided to take to the air. Stepping out, he easily swung the rotor-blades into place, fixed them there with three pins. Instant later, the little machine rose into the air, buzzed off over the trees at 100 m.p.h.

Developed by Autogiro Co. of America, the new giro is the product of many extraordinary recent improvements on the bastard airplane with rotors whose crude ancestor Inventor Juan de la Cierva first made hover in the air 13 years ago. The modern giro is completely wingless, is merely a fuselage with a propeller, a tail, a direct-control rotor. The pilot sets the giro's course by tilting the rotor. In the "readable" model the engine for the first time is behind and below the pilot. This gives him perfect vision on the highway, better balance in the air. By a simple clutch, he can apply power either to the single wheel at the rear or to the propeller.

Soon to be adapted to the "roadable" giro is Inventor Cierva's new "jump take-off"--a method by which the giro for the first time can actually rise straight into the air. This is done by briefly gearing the rotor blades to the engine and whirling them at top speed while their angle of incidence is zero. When the clutch is disengaged and the blades are suddenly given a sharp angle of incidence, the giro jumps some 15 feet straight off the ground. Then the propeller drags the giro forward.

First readable giro is to be sold to the Bureau of Air Commerce for $12,500. It cost some $80,000 to develop. Eventually, Autogiro Co. of America expects to start mass production, bring the price down toward that of a good automobile. Firm conviction is that the combination of jump take-off and roadability is the only way to end private flying's present prime inconvenience: getting to and from a landing place.

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