Cierva Autogiro Company

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Cierva Autogiro Company, Ltd
Company typeLimited company
IndustryAviation
Founded24 March 1926 (1926-03-24)
FounderJames George Weir
Defunct1975 (1975)[citation needed]
Headquarters
Hamble, Southampton (from 1946)
Key people
Juan de la Cierva

The Cierva Autogiro Company was a British firm established in 1926 to develop the autogyro. The company was set up to further the designs of Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer and pilot, with the financial backing of James George Weir, a Scottish industrialist and aviator.

History

Juan de la Cierva's first British-built autogyro was the

Lioré-et-Olivier
.

On 9 December 1936, Cierva was killed in the

Fairey Aviation in 1945, where he continued the development of the C.41 design to create the first gyrodyne, the Fairey FB-1, that first flew in 1947.[citation needed
]

In 1943, the Aircraft Department of

Cierva Air Horse was at the time (1948) the world's largest helicopter.[citation needed
] The first prototype of the Air Horse crashed killing
Alan Marsh, Cierva's manager and chief test pilot[note 1] John "Jeep" Cable,[note 2] Ministry of Supply Chief Helicopter Test Pilot, and J. K. Unsworth the Flight Engineer.[1] This led Weir to cease further investment in the company and its development contracts were transferred to Saunders-Roe.[citation needed
]

Aircraft

British-built aircraft

  • Cierva C.8
  • Cierva C.9
  • Cierva C.10
  • Cierva C.12 (first flight 1929) - first autogyro with floats
  • Cierva C.13 - flying boat autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.14
  • Cierva C.17
  • Cierva C.19
  • Cierva C.20 Focke-Wulf licence-built version of C.19
  • Cierva C.21 Lioré et Olivier licence-built version of C.19 (not built)
  • Cierva C.24
  • Cierva C.25
  • Cierva C.26 - twin-engine autogiro (project only); designation re-used for modified C.24[2]
  • Cierva C.29
  • Cierva C.30
  • Cierva C.32 - two-seat coupe autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.33 - four seat autogiro based on the Avro Type 641 Commodore (project only)[3]
  • Cierva C.37 - twin engine, twin boom autogiro with 45-foot diameter rotor (project only)[4]
  • Cierva C.38
  • Cierva C.39 - two or three fleet spotter autogiro (project only)[2]
  • Cierva C.40
  • Weir W.1 - W.4 - Four prototypes of single-place autogiro. Abandoned when development of W.5 helicopter commenced.
  • Weir W.5 (first flight 1938) - 2-seater twin (outrigger) rotor helicopter with wooden frame; engine was a 50 hp 4-cylinder air-cooled Weir
  • Weir W.6 (first flight 1939) - twin rotor helicopter, 200 hp de Havilland Gipsy, metal tube frame
  • Cierva W.9 (first flight 1945) - experimental helicopter to E.16/43, used shaft-driven hydraulically-actuated tilting hub for rotor control, and blown air for torque control and direction, one built
  • Cierva W.11 Air Horse (first flight 1948) - heavy lift helicopter development of W.6 design, two built
  • Cierva W.14 Skeeter (first flight 1948) - from 1951 the Saunders-Roe Skeeter
  • Cierva CR Twin (first flight 1969)

Notes and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cierva Autogiro Company.
Notes
  1. ^ Marsh had been with Cierva since 1932 and had been its instructor at the autogyro flying school. During World War II he had flown autogyros for radar development
  2. ^ Cable had learnt to fly under Marsh and had been a Cierva employee before world War II. During World War II, he had been commanding officer of the Research, Development and Training Unit for Rotary-Wing Aircraft.
Citations
  1. ^ "Air Horse Tragedy" Flight 22 June 1950 p747
  2. ^ a b c d "Cierva designations".
  3. ^ "Avro-Cierva C.33 / Type 665 - Stingray's List of Rotorcraft".
  4. ^ "Avro-Cierva C.37 / Type 668 - Stingray's List of Rotorcraft".
Bibliography
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