| C.12 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A similar, later, autogyro, the Cierva C.19 Mk.4, Museo del Aire, Madrid: NB the C.12 appears to have had a 4-bladed main rotor [1] | |
| Role | Experimental autogyro |
| Manufacturer | Cierva Autogiro Company/Avro |
| Designer | Juan de la Cierva |
| First flight | 1929 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Cierva C.12 was an experimental autogyro built by Cierva Autogiro Company in England in 1929, in association with Avro.
Like most other Cierva designs, it was based on an existing aircraft fuselage - in this case, an Avro Avian.
The most significant thing about this aircraft is that after initial tests, the Avian's second cockpit was removed, and the aircraft's undercarriage was replaced by the same floats used to equip standard Avian seaplanes. In this configuration, the C.12 (now dubbed the Hydrogiro) flew from Southampton Water in April 1930, becoming the first rotary-wing aircraft to take off from water.
Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.
An autogyro, also known as a gyroplane or gyrocopter, is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. While similar to a helicopter rotor in appearance, the autogyro's rotor must have air flowing across the rotor disc to generate rotation, and the air flows upwards through the rotor disc rather than down.
Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplishment was the invention in 1920 of the first helicopter called Autogiro, a single-rotor type of aircraft that came to be called autogyro in the English language. In 1923, after four years of experimentation, De la Cierva developed the articulated rotor, which resulted in the world's first successful flight of a stable rotary-wing aircraft, with his C.4 prototype.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1926:
The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in the First World War, in any military capacity, during that conflict. More than 10,000 were built from 1913 until production ended in 1940.
The Cirrus and Hermes or Cirrus-Hermes are a series of British aero engines manufactured, under various changes of ownership, from the 1920s until the 1950s. The engines were all air-cooled, four-cylinder inline types, with earlier ones upright and later designs inverted.
The Cierva C.30 was an autogyro designed by Juan de la Cierva and built under licence from the Cierva Autogiro Company by A V Roe & Co Ltd (Avro), Lioré-et-Olivier and Focke-Wulf.
The Cierva C.6 was the sixth autogyro designed by engineer Juan de la Cierva, and the first one to travel a "major" distance. Cierva, the engineer responsible for the invention of the autogyro, had spent all his funds on the research and creation of his first five prototypes. Therefore, in 1923, he turned to the Cuatro Vientos Aerodynamics Laboratory chief, Commander Emilio Herrera, who succeeded in persuading General Francisco Echagüe, the director of the Military Aviation Aeronautics Department, to take over the second stage in the research and development of Cierva's autogyros.
The Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major is a British five-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft, designed and built by Armstrong Siddeley and first run in 1928. It developed 140 horsepower (104 kW). In Royal Air Force use the seven-cylinder version was known as the Civet I. The Feliform names used are in line with company convention, the Genet and Civet both being large cat-like carnivores.
The Avro Avian was a series of British light aircraft designed and built by Avro in the 1920s and 1930s. While the various versions of the Avian were sound aircraft, they were comprehensively outsold by the de Havilland Moth and its descendants.
The Avro 552 was a British light biplane aircraft produced in the early 1920s. It was another attempt by Avro to sell a derivative of the wartime 504 to the civil market.
The Armstrong Siddeley Genet was a five-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft use built in the UK, first run in 1926. It developed 80 hp at 2,200 rpm in its final form and was a popular light aircraft powerplant. Following the company tradition with a slight deviation the engine was named after the Genet, a catlike animal of the same order but different family.
The Cierva Autogiro Company was a British firm established in 1926 to develop the autogyro. The company was set up to further the designs of Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer and pilot, with the financial backing of James George Weir, a Scottish industrialist and aviator.
The Cierva C.8 was an experimental autogyro built by Juan de la Cierva in England in 1926 in association with Avro. Like Cierva's earlier autogyros, the C.8s were based on existing fixed-wing aircraft fuselages – in this case, the Avro 552.
The Cierva C.9 was an experimental autogyro built by Cierva in England in 1927, in association with Avro. It was the first of Cierva's autogyro designs to feature an original, purpose-built fuselage. Two examples were built - a single-seat machine and a two-seater.
The Cierva C.17 was a British experimental autogyro built by Cierva Autogiro Company in England in 1928, in association with Avro. It was an attempt to build upon the successful Cierva C.8 design using the smaller, more streamlined fuselage of an Avro Avian IIIA as a starting point. The type was found to be underpowered, and when the first attempt at fitting a more powerful engine still did not result in acceptable performance, the design was abandoned.
The Cierva C.19 was a 1930s British two-seat autogyro, designed by Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva. It was built by Avro as the Avro Type 620. It proved to be the most successful and widely produced of the early de la Cierva designs.
The ADC Cirrus is a series of British aero engines manufactured using surplus Renault parts by the Aircraft Disposal Company (ADC) in the 1920s.
The Kellett KD-1 was a 1930s American autogyro built by the Kellett Autogiro Company. It had the distinction of being the first practical rotary-wing aircraft used by the United States Army and inaugurated the first scheduled air-mail service using a rotary-wing aircraft.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cierva C.12 . |