Originally Posted by
MechEngr
The autogyro was created as an alternative to fixed wing aircraft after a friend of the inventor stalled a plane and died. Most have small engines with lower reliability so while the automatic recovery advantage of fixed wing is a plus, the odds of doing so is higher.
They are as comparable to helicopters as fixed wing operations and fixed wing and autogyros are generally safer because they mainly operate in continuous forward motion and, essentially, never in high risk hover.
But whatever you do, do NOT apply negative 'g' to the rotor disk.