Page:The Fun of It.pdf/160

130 will continue to be so until their mechanical per­fection more closely approaches his theory.

For it must be remembered that the autogiro is still an experimental airplane. To compete com­mercially with the other type it still must increase its cruising speed to more than its present eighty miles an hour, carry a larger load on less horse­power than now required, and carry more than two hours’ fuel supply. It must become lower in cost and upkeep, too, to appeal to the private owner who wants a plane he can treat as he does his car.

But such faults will doubtless be overcome as the autogiro grows up. And already it can do many of the things its inventor dreamed of. Like a bird it can settle to earth and stop—with no roll at all on the ground. A passenger I took up once de­scribed this characteristic very aptly by saying, as he got out,

“Well, she lands just like a turkey buzzard.”

The “buzzard” landing obviously requires much less space than does the long roll of conventional fast planes. As would be imagined, the autogiro can get off in less space, too, and climb more steeply than many straight winged craft.

A picturesque example of its ability to land in small spaces was afforded last year when Jim Ray brought one down on the south lawn of the White House, an occasion on which the Collier Trophy was presented to its manufacturers in America. Curiously it was a more historic occasion than most people were aware of. Few remembered