A rotor kite or gyrokite is an unpowered,

rotary-wing aircraft A rotary-wing aircraft, rotorwing aircraft or rotorcraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings that spin around a vertical mast to generate lift. Part 1 (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapter I of Title 14 of the ...

. Like an

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 ...

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 ...

, it relies on lift created by one or more sets of rotors in order to fly. Unlike a helicopter, gyrokites and rotor kites do not have an engine powering their rotors, but while an autogyro has an engine providing forward thrust that keeps the rotor turning, a rotor kite has no engine at all, and relies on either being carried aloft and dropped from another aircraft, or by being towed into the air behind a car or boat or by use of ambient winds for the kiting. As of 2009, no country in the world requires a license to pilot such a craft.

History

* Thomas Ansboro of

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

patented an autorotating-winged rotor kite in 1891. * Walter Van Wie filed a patent for a ''Revolving Kite'' in 1909 claiming "certain new and useful Improvements" in revolving kites" * 1933: Filed: July 11, 1933
US2074327
by De Courcy and Schwarz for ''Kite''. * 1936: Filed: Aug 1, 1936
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by Carl B. Chupp for ''Aerial Device''. Research into rotor kites or gyrokites was deepened during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and one type in particular, the Focke Achgelis Fa 330, reached active service, being towed behind German

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s as an aerial observation platform. In the United Kingdom, Raoul Hafner designed the Rotachute as a means of deploying paratroops, and a larger version, the Rotabuggy, was trialled as a means of air-dropping a

jeep Jeep is an American automobile brand, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with other assets, from its previous owner, American Motors Co ...

, but neither of these aircraft progressed past the experimental stage. Plans to similarly equip a tank never left the drawing board. During the 1950s, rotor kites were developed as recreational aircraft, largely due to the efforts of Dr.

Igor Bensen Igor Vasilevich Bensen (; April 1, 1917 – February 10, 2000) was a Russian-American engineer. He founded Bensen Aircraft, a US company which produced a successful line of gyrogliders (rotor kites) and autogyros. Early life and educatio ...

in the United States, whose

Bensen Aircraft Corporation The Bensen Aircraft Corporation was established by Dr. Igor Bensen at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina in 1952 to develop and market a variety of helicopters and autogyros of Bensen's own design. History Their most succe ...

produced a series of such aircraft, dubbed "gyrogliders" by Bensen. These were marketed as plans or kits for building at home, beginning with the B-5 and culminating with the B-8 by the end of the decade. The Bensen designs became so ubiquitous that the term "gyroglider" is sometimes used to refer to any rotor kite, regardless of manufacturer. In the 1960s, a B-8 gyroglider was evaluated by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

as a "Discretionary Descent Vehicle", to provide a more controllable alternative than a parachute for a pilot ejecting from a stricken aircraft.

Manned rotor kites

Bensen B-5 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 Cor ...

Bensen B-6 The Bensen B-6 is a small rotor kite developed by Igor Bensen in the United States in the early 1950s and marketed for home building. It was a minimalist design based on Bensen's B-5 and consisting of little more than a seat mounted on wooden s ...

Bensen B-7 The Bensen B-7 was a small rotor kite developed by Igor Bensen in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for home building. It was a refined to be a slightly larger version of the B-6, replacing the skids with a tricycle undercarriage, and ...

* A person from Russia named Shumeyko built and flew a gyro hang glider in the 1990s. * Stephan Nitsch designed and built a manned rotor kite hang glider; he used the term "Autogiro" for the rotor kite hang glider. *

Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 The Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 ''Bachstelze'' () is a type of rotary-wing kite, known as a rotor kite. They were towed behind German U-boats during World War II to allow a lookout to see further. About 200 were built by Weser Flugzeugbau. Develop ...

Hafner Rotachute The Hafner H.8 Rotachute was a British 1940s experimental one-man rotor kite designed by Raoul Hafner. Background The Rotachute was the eventual development of a concept devised by Raoul Hafner, an Austrian engineer who specialised in rotary ...

Hafner Rotabuggy The Hafner Rotabuggy (formally known as the Malcolm Rotaplane and as the "M.L. 10/42 Flying Jeep") was a British experimental aircraft that was essentially a Willys MB combined with a rotor kite, developed with the intention of producing a way ...

Unmanned rotor-kites

* Sky Chopper
Sky Windpower

References

External links

Explanation of Gyrogliders

Bensen Gyrogliders

Bensen Aircraft Organization
{{Kites *

History

Manned rotor kites

Unmanned rotor-kites

See also

References

External links