The title doesn't say "Why we don't see", it says "Why don't we see"?

@@blh-rr9fu A distinction without a difference.

@@syramento of course there is a difference. The author left out the punctuation (?) so it seemed like a declarative statement instead of a rhetorical question.

@@maryjohnson2700 If it had the punctuation, it would still be a rhetorical question, and not a true offer of explanation.

Is he still alive?

so you're saying you can still get one from the 70's that will most likely kill you but fly?

There is a difference a light sport 2 seat aircraft what cost 80k, but ultralights cost much less.

@Frank De Ruiter Actually, they suffered the same issues as other designs of the time. There were several deaths in his gyros and he actually refused to sell any after that. Mr. Wallis was an expert gyro pilot who totally understood their shortcomings and knew how to fly them within the correct envelope. All the early designs had the same issues and were susceptible to PPO's, (bunt over)and PIO's. Edit Correction: There was actually only ONE death in a Wallis Gyro but numerous ones in this style of gyro which employ high thrust and no horizontal tailplane. I inadvertantly conflated the issues/deaths together. Sorry for the misquote attributing numerous deaths to the Wallis gyro.

@@markhull1366 bingo

I agree and disagree. Little guys can't get the really nice stuff anymore without dropping a big bag of cash, but you can always get a pietenpole, or mini max build plans/kit. They are actually quite affordable and pretty much do what you'd want as a small hobby. Now anything else like commercial or something, then yeah I definitely agree, its ridiculous how much an older used cessna can sometimes be. You might get lucky and find a decently affordable one on the cheaper side, but it probably needs a crap ton of work.

That seems to be his plan although I dont think he will ever fly it himself.

Not one single dead stick landing in that video. He did a fine job of flying that gyro, though. "Dead stick" means the engine''s not running. :-)

If you are good with perhaps 30 minutes of flying time per charge, then an electric version of a gyrocopter is no problem.

@@phugwad Actually we're getting close to much better ranges than that. Electric motors for small ultralights are much lighter/hp than petrol motors the killer being the batteries. Working on a 503 rotax power supply which is more than enough (Gyrobee and Nano get by with much less) but safe to be more conservative about prospects. Regardless CATL are currently constructing a megafactory to build a 500watt/hour/kg battery (That's about 2x Tesla's new battery). They will market to electric aircraft. Back to my back of the envelop calculations. So take out engine, fuel and for exactly the same weight you can have a 54 hp electric motor with a 50kg battery. That gives 25000wh in the battery. If you ran the 54 hp flat out that would give you 37.2 minutes of juice. Now total air time I have no decent way of working out as two stroke engines like this are pitched for smooth running of the engine and two strokes have peaky torque curves. Electric motors have a flatter torque curve. We know the Nano can fly indeed climb out (if not too briskly) on a 38hp engine so cruise must be lower hp than that. Let's assume 35hp will allow for straight and level flight. This would mean 57 minutes in the air if flown sedately just a country tour. Of course this would be more like 45 minutes with a reserve to preserve the battery. But 45 minutes for a sedate flight with reserve will be this year when the batteries will be sold commercially will be possible. I tend to be very skeptical of kw/h/kg figures until they release batteries for independent testing and are building factories. There are interesting batteries which exceed 700w/h/kg and even some chemistries like co2 lithium batteries that might go above 1000w/h/kg but as far as I know these are all still in the "can we actually make these and will they last etc. But I tend to believe CATL on this claim given they have released these batteries as samples for independent testing and they are building a factory to actually build them. You need to be confident to spend a 100s of millions on a mega factory. So 400watt hour/kg was my personal threshold my next build project will be making as light an airframe as I can (probably chrome molly) to make a single seater capable of 40 minutes flight with reserve. My average flight was about that anyway. No idea what they will charge for these batteries but current batteries for 50kg (much less kw/hs) are around $8000 electric motor at 54hp around $1500-$2000. How much is a 912s? So we should albeit with a shorter range be able to exceed 912 series reliability, quieter (not silent - prop noise), 1 moving part. Other advantages would include shortening the overall package and thus being able to bring the mast back to a shorter mast as the engine will be 1/2 the thickness of a 503 this would give more prop clearance and allow bigger prop but shorter mast. Re-gen should give us the ability to actively shorten glide angle without resorting to dropping airspeed rather steepening approach. The ability to stop say a two blade prop vertically inline with mast reducing drag in an engine out. You could even potentially add reverse thrust to the propeller and save the weight of brakes. Obviously on a landing there is no need for brakes as gyros always land slow but having gone to a lot of bother to machine adaptors for my wheels for my home made braking system on my light single seat gyro each adaptor weighing 200grams + rotors + calipers and my heel brake assembly I have definitely added at least 1kg to my machine. Having reverse thrust for the times you are winding up downwind and trying to Fred Flintstone you gyro to stop before the fence at the end of the strip would be removed with the ability to hit a button on your throttle to reverse thrust. What about when you take the gyro home to your garage hooking your battery up to your house and using it as home storage, saving you using power from the grid in peak hour and paying for the next battery? Gyros now are just sunk money when we are not using them, these have the potential to actually be useful in the weeks between flying weekends. Batteries are almost there, and if you owned an electric gyro you could forget about replacing the two stroke engine after 500 hours 1 moving part you engine will be forever you'd buy a new battery every 8 years and keep it as home storage (80% capacity will be perfectly fine for home storage) and replace it with by then probably 1000w/h/kg battery and have 1.5 hours flying time.

You have to find plans only

@@shawnwright5332 incorrect. Several models of gyro planes are available for purchase.

@@68BigSherm - I think he meant Bensen's.

There were never that many manufactured even back in the day. Bensen sold a kit but most people build from plans or derived their gyros using his basic geometry.

Possibly because people have become convinced that shinny fibreglass is magical. These engines were unreliable nosiy. I used to fly a direct drive VW, very loud but flew beautifully. I'm waiting for higher energy dense solid state batteries, then I'm putting an electric motor on. Much cheaper than a 912 rotax. Quite and reliable. Batteries are not quite energy dense enough yet. At this weight and performance you'd get 13.4 minutes at full power maybe 40 mins total, once we can get an hour I'm in.

​@@cameronlapworth2284 even the most advanced, Tesla system, isn't yet feasible for the open air. 1100 lbs of battery to haul around.

@@astr0creep6x6x6 no I've done the numbers based on the all up weight of a 503 Rotax gyro. Replacing batteries for the difference in weight. Electric motor s are very light, a Rotax 503 and 30kg of fuel = 62kg. Replace that with 11kg electric motor and about 50 kg of batteries at same power and you get 13.4 min on those batteries, perhaps 30 mins to 40 mins depending on how much you can back off. So you don't carry a full Tesla battery you live with reduced range. I used to fly on average about 40 mins a couple of time s a day. So they don't have to get a great deal better before I could get this and a 10 min reserve. Should state batteries in lab are already producing 2 1/2 times that,. They'll get good enough for my local toddle about the local area flying in the 3 years I think it will take me to build. The batteries will be the last thing to go on. Cavinar Gyros have done some tests and gotten similar figures to mine. It'll be a while before we have long range yes, but I flew open frame low and slow. I've had 4 inflight engine related emergencies. 1st solo distributor failed, I had my SU carb pressure mixture lock at a high altitude airstrip richening my air fuel mixture and barely had enough power to get back to the airstrip, carburettor iced causing engine out fortunately over the airstrip (practicing engine failure s at the time), and finally warped head leading to a long walk in long waist high grass hoping not to stand on a brown snake. Combine that with the industrial deafness I now suffer at a very specific frequency (I'll bet the same as my gyro). Inspite of always using ear protection, and the fact I'd get bored flying in straight lines so preferred local flying to longer cross country flights and having 1 moving part, no carbs, reliable and quite and that is the machine for me. Tesla batteries at the weight I can afford and have same power to weight as light bensen style machine as I said at same power give 13.4 mins, no one climbs that long so currently 30 mins might be feasible. Battery technology energy density already doubled in the past 5 years it will get better again in the next few. I'm hoping some of the solid state batteries come along by then,. Even if not it's almost there now just for short flight a which suits me.

@@cameronlapworth2284 tesla batteries did cost around 20 grand, lol, but have reduced to as little as 10 grand. Electric motors of equal horsepower to hydrocarbon-based engines are NOT lighter. The tesla motor and inverter are 350 lbs + the 1330 lb battery pack. Solid state batteries? LOL. Dry cell batteries? Lead Acid, agm, etc are the same tech (anode, cathode and electrolyte) but use different methods to deepen their "wells", like compression, porous lead plating, chemistry, etc. A quick mental math example is to take your best RC flyer, running LiPo batteries, and scaling that up to our current "model" size. Tesla's secret is cooling and cooling creates even more weight for greater bursts of power. Heat is the #1 enemy of all electronics.

@@astr0creep6x6x6 did I say I intended to put a Tesla motor in? No I don't need hundreds of HP only 50. The 2 electric aircraft engines I am looking at are 11 and 8 kg. A Tesla power wall at 12kwh costs $12 000 I can only afford the weight of 8 kWh worth of batteries at 50kg. This will obviously cost less than $12 000. To buy a reliable 4 stroke I'd be looking at a heavy Rotax 912 and that's up around $30 O00 just for the engine,. Then I'm going to need bigger blades, mast prop etc. Not interested. I want a buzz around the area for 45 min and 10-15 mins up my sleeve. Not there yet. I'd get 13.4 mins at full power. So probably current ly 25 mins ish. But it's going to take me a few years to built this and I'm confident the chemistry will get there about the time I'm done. Batteries will be the last thing. There have already been two electric gyros and several ultralights gliders and several two seat aircraft. It's not impossible or too expensive,. Just poor range for draggy aircraft at the moment. But that's improving by the day.

He's simply saying these are great its a pity we don't see them anymore. And they are great.

It’s a rhetorical question. And there are a variety of answers in the comments, which do, in fact, answer the question. Why would you insult someone else’s effort, (and everyone’s intelligence) rather than doing some mild research?

The FFA needs to m8nd there own Bs

The real trouble there is it’s near impossible to keep them under the 254 lb restriction with available engines and a horizontal tailplane. If you can stay under 254, you can fly it with no license, but still need instruction. (Death seems so inconvenient as a training aid).