__NOTOC__ The Cierva C.29 was a five-seat British cabin

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', 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. ...

built in 1934 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. ...

and

Cierva 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 Scot ...

. The rotor system and rotors were designed by Cierva and the fuselage by Westland. It was powered by a Armstrong Siddeley Panther II engine with a two-bladed tractor propeller; the engine also drove the three-bladed rotor via a clutched shaft. The C.29 suffered from

ground resonance Ground resonance is an imbalance in the rotation of a helicopter rotor when the blades become bunched up on one side of their rotational plane and cause an oscillation in phase with the frequency of the rocking of the helicopter on its landing gear. ...

during ground running and was not flown. It was later acquired for evaluation by the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...

but it was unable to cure the resonance problem and the autogyro was scrapped in 1939.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

{{Cierva aircraft C.29 C.29 1930s British civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor autogyros