The Pitcairn XO-61 was an American

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 ...

Pitcairn Aircraft The Pitcairn Islands ( ; Pitkern: '), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four islan ...

. One of the last autogyros produced, in competition with the

Kellett YO-60 The Kellett KD-1 is 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 us ...

and the

Sikorsky R-4 The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat light helicopter that was designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass production, mass-produced helicopter and the ...

, it fell victim to cooling problems with its rear-mounted engine and the coming of the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

with its ability to hover.Gregg, E. Stuart
"Above & Beyond: Jump Ship"
. ''Air & Space Smithsonian'', March 2001Harris, Franklin D
An Overview of Autogyros and The McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane
NASA/CR—2003–212799. NASA

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

, October 2003 Also known by the company model number PA-44 and the contract designation MX-157,Cully, George & Andreas Parsch
MX-1 to MX-499 Listing
designation-systems.net the contract for the XO-61 was taken over by

G&A Aircraft G&A might refer to: * Selling, General and Administrative Expenses, an accounting concept * George & Alana, a 90s television show * Guns & Ammo ''Guns & Ammo'' is a magazine dedicated to firearms, hunting, competitive shooting, reloading, a ...

upon G&A's acquisition of Pitcairn Aircraft.Wings of Freedom Winter 2007/2008
, Volume 22 Number 4, Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association.

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*Cully, George & Andreas Parsch

*Gregg, E. Stuart

''Air & Space Smithsonian'', March 2001 Listing, designation-systems.net *Harris, Franklin D
An Overview of Autogyros and The McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane
NASA/CR—2003–212799. NASA

, October 2003
Wings of Freedom Winter 2007/2008
, Volume 22 Number 4, Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association. O-061 1940s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Single-engined pusher autogyros Twin-boom aircraft {{aero-1940s-stub

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