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

Was the Pawnee Chief there this year? It looked pretty near complete last year.

Shawn,
I am not sure. There was a helo across the field with a yellow cab I think, they were limiting access so I was unable to go there. The Carter copter was in the restricted area also when I was there. They may have moved it later for public viewing.

Great shame about the P51 pilot.

Are Carter marketing their machine as recreational, or do they see non hover applications? I can't imagine the autogyro would be that much cheaper to operate than a teetering heli.

Graviman,
In the current issue of "CONTACT" magazine for aircraft designers, a press release says Carter has designed a 6-7 place Business Air Vehicle (BAV), for true point-to-point air travel.

The Carter team has done some amazing experiments but they seem to be more focused on trying new stuff rather than actual aircraft sales.

Hmmm, certainly does seem that way. There is nothing like a customer requirement to focus the minds of a development team...