The Bensen B-5 was a small rotor kite developed by Igor Bensen in the United States and offered and marketed for home building in 1954. Dubbed the "Gyro-Glider", it was the first of several such designs that would be sold by Bensen Aircraft Corporation over the following decades. The B-5 was built around a cruciform frame of aluminum tube. Landing wheels were fitted to three points of this cross, and a mast was fitted above its centre to support the rotor hub. The fourth arm of the cross provided a mounting for a large, plywood fin and rudder, reminiscent of that of the Raoul Hafner's Rotachute that had shaped Bensen's thinking about rotor kite design. The aircraft was intended to be towed behind a car, and could be built at home from easily obtained materials in about three to four weeks. The B-5 was also the model converted to the Bensen Mid-Jet which was powered by two tip mounted ramjets for military use.

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Bensen Aircraft Foundation

"Front Cover"
''Popular Science'', July 1954. {{Bensen aircraft 1950s United States sport aircraft Rotor kites B-05 Homebuilt aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1953