Rotor kite.html |
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| Rotor kite | |
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| Part of a series on Categories of Aircraft |
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| Lighter than air (aerostats) | |
| Unpowered | Powered |
| • Balloon | • Airship |
| Hybrid Lighter-than-air/Heavier-than-air | |
| Unpowered | Powered |
| • Hybrid airship | |
| Heavier than air (aerodynes) | |
| Unpowered | Powered |
| Flexible-wing • Hang glider |
Flexible-wing • Powered hang glider |
| Fixed-wing • Glider |
Fixed-wing • Powered airplane/aeroplane |
| Hybrid fixed/rotary wing • Tiltwing • Tiltrotor • Coleopter |
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| Rotary-wing • Rotor kite |
Rotary-wing • Autogyro • Gyrodyne ("Heliplane") • Helicopter |
| Other means of lift • Ornithopter • Flettner airplane |
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| see also • Ground-effect vehicle • Hovercraft • Flying Bedstead • Avrocar |
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A rotor kite or gyroglider is an unpowered, rotary-wing aircraft. Like an autogyro or helicopter, it relies on lift created by one or more sets of rotors in order to fly. Unlike a helicopter, autogyros and rotor kites do not have an engine powering their rotors, but while an autogyro has an engine providing forward thrust that keeps the rotor turning, a rotor kite has no engine at all, and relies on either being carried aloft and dropped from another aircraft, or by being towed into the air behind a car or boat. As of 2008, no country in the world requires a license to pilot such a craft.
History
Research into rotor kites began in earnest during World War II, and one type in particular, the Focke Achgelis Fa 330, reached active service, being towed behind German U-boats as an aerial observation platform. In the United Kingdom, the Hafner Rotachute was investigated as a means of deploying paratroops, and a larger version, the Rotabuggy was trialled as a means of air-dropping a Jeep, but neither of these aircraft progressed past the experimental stage. Plans to similarly equip a tank (the Rotatank) never left the drawing board.
During the 1950s, rotor kites were developed as recreational aircraft, largely due to the efforts of Dr. Igor Bensen in the United States, whose Bensen Aircraft Corporation produced a series of such aircraft, dubbed "gyrogliders" by Bensen. These were marketed as plans or kits for building at home, beginning with the B-5 and culminating in the definitive B-8 by the end of the decade. The Bensen designs became so ubiquitous that the term "gyroglider" is sometimes used to refer to any rotor kite, regardless of manufacturer. In the 1960s, a B-8 gyroglider was evaluated by the United States Air Force as a "Discretionary Descent Vehicle", to provide a more controllable alternative than a parachute for a pilot ejecting from a stricken aircraft.