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The Pitcairn PA-19 was a four-seat
autogyro
An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...
developed in the United States in the early 1930s.
[Taylor 1989, p.735] While most of Pitcairn's autogyro designs featured open cockpits in tandem, the PA-19 had a fully enclosed cabin.
[''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft'', p.2739]"Autogiro With Two Rudders And Four Place Cabin", January 1933, Popular Mechanics
rare photo of PA-19 It also had wings that carried control surfaces.["Archimedes Museum Photo Gallery"] Four examples were built before the effects of the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
forced Pitcairn to abandon autogyro production in 1934.Henry Latham Doherty
Henry Latham Doherty (May 15, 1870 – December 26, 1939) was an American financier and oilman, a native of Columbus, Ohio. In 1910, he created the Cities Service Company, a utility holding company that later became the Citgo Petroleum Corporatio ...
purchased one to promote his "Florida Year-Round Clubs", while the Guinness Brewery
St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is ...
purchased two. Colonel Robert L. Montgomery purchased one to commute between his homes, and Pitcairn Aviation kept one as a demonstrator.
Specifications
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{{Pitcairn aircraft
1930s United States civil utility aircraft
PA-19
Single-engined tractor autogyros
Aircraft first flown in 1932