WWII Auto giro prototype

[motherbird]

Any of you out there know if this story told to me my my father is true or not?



In about 1943 my father said that he met a test pilot of an auto-giro The pilot said it was such a dangerous thing to fly that he was determined that the prototype would never return to base. He dumped it in the sea sufficiently close to land so he could swim ashore but deep enough so it couldn’t be recovered.The poor pilots's punishment was to become drogue pilot.


I've seen some very outlandish designs for early helicopters and they look lethal.



Motherbird

[chevvron]

All I know is autogyros (usually Cierva designs) were extensively used for radar calibration (based at Halton) so there must have been a large 'pool' of pilots qualified on them. I also remember reading a story where one of these calibrators was credited with a 'kill' of an Me109, which the auto pilot out manouvered causing it to dive into the sea.