Carter Copter at Oshkosh
I watched the Carter autogyro perform a "jump takeoff" last friday at Oshkosh. The pilot gets the rotor up to a high rpm in flat pitch then pulls the lever to lift straight up about a hundred or two hundred feet then transitions into forward flight.
Jay Carter said each blade weighs 80lbs and 40lbs is tip weight.
Just a few minutes after the jump takeoff demo a pair of P-51 mustangs doing a formation landing got tangled up and one pilot was killed when his plane pitched up and snap rolled onto the runway and burst into flames.
I think this was the only fatal accident this year.
There was an interesting variety of unusual aircraft including the Goodyear blimp, the U2 spyplane, F-22 Raptor and much more.
Kit helicopters flying were: Rotorway, Safari, Mosquito, several of each.
slowrotor