I love those contraptions. Given, the first one I ever saw was 'Little Nellie' in James Bond 'You only live twice', but I looked into their construction bcause of that movie and still find it fascinating.

Essentially the top rotor functions as the wings and as long as the gyrocopter moves forward the top rotor keeps spinning. So even if the engine fails the 'copter still keeps going. As it slows down it slowly looses altitude.

You probably kne that, but as I said, the construction fascinates me.

I also wonder about alternate uses, at least in stories. Drop a capsule from orbit, have it unfold into a gyrocopter in the athmosphere, do some reconnaisance and land. Disassembled it's easy to hide and for one agent/soldier it could bring quite a bit of equipment along.
The right materials, an electric motor and flying low it should easily evade most detection methods even in a Science Fiction setting.

There was a program during the Vietnam War to build something along the lines you talk about. It would enable a pilot who had been forced down to escape capture. They could never get it small enough and still have it work.

Wow, I didn't hear about that one. Interesting. And thanks. I will have to look that up.
I stumbled over a video from experiments from that time with inflatable planes for the same use with the same results.

AAAAH! BLACK LEAGUE OF NATIONS AUTOGYRO!!!

I thought of that while taking the picture, and almost laughed too hard to get the snap.

I think it's quite fitting that, with next year being the centennial of the autogyro's invention, they're finally coming back into vogue.

It's a nifty little thing.

Cute, too. And awesome.

The budget flyers, I wish to fly it once I've got enough cash.