I don't understand how a gyrocopter works.

It's not a helicopter and other than having an up top blade and out back blade it isn't much like a helicopter at all. I understand how a helicopter works. Pfft, that's easy. Explain the gyrocoptothing.

 

I'll take a stab. It's also called an autogyro, which makes more sense to how it works. The top rotor works backwards, think a standard helicopter in auto rotation due to a failed engine. Air flows up through the rotor blades from the bottom which you can use to spin up the rotor rpm and then use that energy to create lift, not enough soley but that's what the other engine is for.

 

They fly by the Grace of the Holy Mother of Counter Rotation... I had a Bensen B8m with a 90 HP Mac ... Hell of a lot of fun

 

Except a helicopter can act like a gyrocopter if it’s engine fails.

 

It’s the same basic principle as an airplane, but in this case lift is not generated by air moving around the fixed wing, but by air moving around the spinning rotor blades.

In a helicopter, the rotor is powered, so it is essentially pushing air down, which is why it can hover. In a gyro, the air pushes the rotor up. The gyro needs forward momentum to generate the air pressure/flow for the rotor.

 

Dude you googled that. You ain't got a clue how it works.

 

I still can't figure out how a hot water heater works.

 

That's because it is a water heater, not a hot water heater.

 

We could tell you, but you still wouldn't understand.

 

Also true.

 

OK.
A helicopter has a motor that drives the blades (rotors). The blades are wing shaped, or airfoils if you prefer. When they move they create lift, just like the wings of a plane do.

So, a gyrocopter has blades like a chopper, but usually they arent connected to the motor. So how do they spin and create lift you ask? The motor drives a conventional propeller the moves the whole gyrocopter like a plane. And then the blades spin so they create lift.

Is that simple enough or do i need crayons and play doh?

 

My uncle use to always say something to this effect, he was a fighter pilot. I googled what I could remember and this saying came right up.

 

They always fascinated me since they were located in Raleigh.

Hold the play doh and go for it.

 

They used to build these gyrocopters a few miles from my house.

 

Prefferably inside a car on a moving train.

 

In a vacuum

 

A gyrocopter is just a helicopter in continuous autorotation mode.

 

No I didn’t. I know exactly how they work. What I’m having trouble with is dumbing down the explanation for you

 

You can use the playdoh.