The lack of love in the world for the rotodyne is one of the great injustices

Aviation has alway been a delicate balancing act between efficiency, redundancy, speed and safety. I like the redundancy that a hybrid electric gyro could provide as we try to introduce air mobility into the future of traveling.

Really interesting, i always thought they were just a gimmick, didnt expect them to have this much potential for the future.

Yes! Finally! Making it Hybrid and all props electric will be, from my point of view, the way to go.

I've been flying gyros in the UK for some 10 years. The attitude people have towards these machines only makes us gyronauts feel special😅 The magnetic reduction of rotor speed in high speed flight would be a very helpful development imo.. AutoGyro of germany have had an electric gyro available (cavalon) since 2010, but it doesn't have any such rotor control system.

Excellent overview of modern gyrocopters.

As an engineer and aero nerd, it's not often I learn something from YT videos, this was great, thank you

It never occurred to me that going electric on a gyrocopter would open the door to such possibilities. Wow. I hope to see this develop further. Now if only you could bring the price down to make them affordable....

Once the craft is off the ground, you can't power the rotors without spinning the fuselage in the opposite direction. If your propulsion motor goes out while in flight, you cannot turn on the rotor motor to bring you down because the fuselage will spin. Just come down with autorotation.

I love this channel because it is demonstrating what is actually happening. Thank you

Very interesting, especially the view of recuperating energy during flight. That is very sensible and with new technology such questions can now be addressed and solved. Thank you 👍💪✌

I've always loved gyros. Really hope to see them flying about

Always a joy watching your videos mate.

Been a fan of gyrocopters since the early 80s when I bought the plans for a Benson Gyro, then in the late 80s I was able to fly some gyros, but then got scared of their safety record and put the idea up on the shelf. The idea of electric Gyro fascinates me again.

Great video, thanks.

Very well done, as always. Thank you

An electric gyrocopter is a no brainer. Very exciting!

Great Video ! thanks

Thank you for a great and informative video. I rally enjoyed it.

Excellent info as usual!

Interesting proposition but I feel you made a few shortcuts. All gyros have pre-rotators, they are necessary because the rotor needs some initial rotational speed to accelerate with relative wind during ground acceleration. What makes jump gyros different, is they have a collective pitch system, while conventional gyros have simpler fixed collective pitch rotor heads. This allows jump gyros to accelerate the rotor on the ground at full speed without generating lift with low pitch, then disengaging the rotator to avoid torque effects, and then only, effectively jumping by increasing collective pitch abruptively. This is done only on rotor inertia !

I remember the AVIAN which was developed by ex AVRO employees laid off after the ARROW interceptor was cancelled. Many other AVRO employees went to the NASA space program to work on the MERCURY and GEMINI space capsules. I saw the AVIAN at a nearby airport but never saw it fly.

Wonderful news and update of current gyro environment.

Lovely video.

Could the battery and / or maybe some super capacitors be boosted from a ground based electricity supply to achieve the initial rotation speed for the 'jump' takeoff? This would relieve the drain on battery for forward flight.

The _Fairey Rotordyne_ has entered the comment section.

that is good news, because we need to see this potential brought forward as Im sure it will provide a safe VTOL personal vehicle, and has variations in scale too such as Fairey Rotodyne. Likewise we have learned that we can avoid the speed cap imposed due to retreating blade stall by the wings shown in your examples. This could see 300 mph vehicles which will have an impact on range. Cheers

As soon as you mentioned a switchable motor on the main rotor.... I thought yes 💭 Regen in flight 😁 Some exciting prospects there... Well done 👍🏻 Sir

Thank you 🌟

Another excellent and inspiring video essay !!

You could power the main rotor for vertical takeoff from ground based batteries.

I always saw gyros as the most efficient VTOL solution, now with these new developments, they secure that spot. The only way other VTOL options can compete is at higher speed, maneuverability and depending their design; they may land on more closed or urbanized places, but with the drawback of higher energy consumption, cost and noise.

Nice !

Crazy idea that probably wouldn’t work, but I want to put out there. Some sort of, for lack of a better word, extension cord that supplies the rotor with the large amount of electricity it needs for vertical takeoff, without having to have that much more battery weight. After it reaches a specified height, the cable disconnects and the copter goes on its merry little way.

The most obvious application is an electric motor to pre-spin the rotor before takeoff. The second is the ease of implementing Fly By Wire and Throttle By Wire to create anti torgue to allow a small amount of rotor power during takeoff and landing.

The Kurds in Northern Iraq adopted gyro-copters for their traffic police as when they land there is no prop-wash stirring up clouds of dust and causing accidents. That was about a decade ago now, I can't remember the make but they seemed to like them at the time. Given their greater efficiency I am surprised it has taken this long for ducted fans to catch on.

What if a electric VTOL plane would takeoff with cable power?

The beauty of electric motors is a very high power to weight. This is especially so if you only run for a short time at maximum, as in a jump take off.

yes

I want to know SOOOO much more about this! Doing some napkin math here... take sport copter 2 gyro but use the engine to run a generator. Replace the turbo fan with a pair of electric ducted fans that run off the generator. Add a small wing and the brilliant motor on the main rotor described in the video. ChatGPT reckons that could be twice the performance?

As per MyFluffyClouds post below, I would suggest mains power could be applied to a VTOL, for tens of metres after takeoff from a skyscraper, by having a pole run down the inside of the building. This would have a electrical power connection to the aircraft, and be raised up, by mechanical or electrical means, to match the rate of climb, thus not adding to the take off weight. If sufficiently substanstanial, it could even push the VTOL upwards.

The ducted fan is an obvious thing that doesn’t seem to be used as much as I’d expect especially on turbo prop aircraft or even drones where the improved efficiency and noise reduction would really matter. The Harrier Jump Jet was the most obvious use of a ducted fan and the simplest VTOL aircraft ever developed by the military.

*I ❤️ GYROPLANES*

Have you ever flown a Gyrocopter? I have often and I can say, that it is absolutely noting for urban traffic !

Maybe something like the Fairey Rotodyne should be revisited with more modern technology. Change the propulsion to turboprops and drop the rotor tipjets for an electric motor.

In some specific wind conditions, can an autogyro get energy from the rotor with regenerative braking and be useful?

Bring back the Fairey Rotodyne but in electric form :)

Either powering or generating with the rotor whilst in flight causes a moment torque, how do you manage that without a tail rotor? Just rudder?

I wonder how many of your followers remember the Fairey Rotodyne? Is there a chance, incorporating the advances in technology, that such a machine could make a comeback for local urban mass transport?

Good video Sir, have been wondering why no single seat battery gyros around, the torque alone from battery would make a lot of sense for a jump start. Just a simple auto blade angle of attack adjuster needed!

🤗🤗🤗🤗💯💯💯💯

If you slow the rotor, will you not suffer from a lack of lift on the rearward side? I guess you could / should have larger winglets on that side.

Woe

Girocopter !!!

I love the way these companies put an electric motor in an aircraft and call them "Silent". That is such BS. Anyone that's seen in person an electric motor driven prop or EDF knows this is not at all the case. Quieter than a turbine or piston aircraft, yes, but not even remotely silent.

1:25 you mean low disc loading?

or just fixed bi-plane high-lift sail-type delta-wing as ultra-light glider

Why not power the main rotor from a grounded cable for the purpose of take off? This could be detached or retracted once suitable height is achieved.

If the Rotar is powered by motor while being in FLIGHT, meaning it is not free spinning as usually for Gyrocopters. Wouldn't there be a need for an extra tail rotar? Wouldn't that add complexities ?

What about electric paramotors and flex wings ?

Great stuff as always, though I do have to laugh when people use "groundbreaking" to describe an aircraft. That's not usually what I'm looking for in an aircraft.How does that Luminati thing generate lift without it's rotors? It has no wings.

Is it possible to make an electro-turbine?

Noise

Ah, the gyrocopter… let me guess, the next brilliant idea will be the ekranoplane? There is a reason gyrocopters are not used in commercial aviation, and the reason isn’t that they are too good.

1:29 A gyrocopter doing vertical takeoff? 🤔

please increase your technology please sir please

I suppose you've never been onboard a gyro. Among pilots we call them "petrol to noise converters...." Modern Gyros have sacrified everything to speed and handling. The result flies well trough tubulence like an anvil, gets as much speed as it could, BUT has such a poor efficiency. A 500kg gyro glups 25 liters an hours of gasoline, with its engine almost at full throttle all the time (you can't fly "cool" in these). For sure converting these to electric is a DUM idea, unless you want even less range compared to a normal airplane (wich will not be practical before batteries reach 500wh/kg at least). In theory you could make a better efficiency gyro, with a vey large rotor but in this case no pilot would want to fly it, because you would have awfull gyroscopic reactions, vey poor handling, manoeuvrabbility, and you would be shaken by gusts like crasy.

rotodyne failed for a reason, maintence and fuel cost. it is just not competitive. jet fuel is 45mj/kg and li ion batteries are at best 1.7mj/kg

1:29 is NOT a gyrocopter

Not a "Gyrocopter" or even "Autogyro (or Autogiro)". This type of autorotaing aircraft is called "GYROPLANE".

URBAN AIR TRAVEL MAKES ZERO SENSE, WHETHER ELECTRIC OR NOT.

1:30 in, and unmitigated crap. Gyros are great fun. I flew mine for 10 years. They are utterly useless for 'urban air mobility'. They are very power-hungry and inefficient and all the bullshit in the world will not change that. Your pretty renderings do not, and will not, exist. The pictures are pretty, but pure fantasy.

Batteries are stupid for electric, flying vehicles. You need hydrogen fuel cell electrics. Hydrogen can be stored in metal hydrides that don’t need heavy containment tanks. America hss enough natural hydrogen for 200 years and it could be generated using hydrolysis with electricity from using geothermal sources of heat. That would create a complete green energy loop of hot underground water creating electricity to produce hydrogen in vehicles that extract the energy and turn the hydrogen back into water and also clean the air which must be filtered to be used on the fuel cell. This is the perfect power plant for electric flying vehicles like these gyrocopters. I wonder what big energy corporations might not want you to know or think of this?

this is kinda ridiculous, there is nothing to compensate for the rotating torque of the rotor's motor. the moment you turn that motor on and the wheels are off the ground you'll spin out of control and die.

Lilium is far superior to this