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The Cierva C.6 was the sixth autogyro designed by engineer
Cierva c.6 / Avro 574
The Cierva C.6 was the sixth autogyro designed by engineer Juan de la Cierva
Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva (; 21 September 1895 in Murcia, Spain – 9 December 1936 in Croydon, United Kingdom) was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and a self taught aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplish ...
, and the first one to travel a "major" distance. Cierva
The Cierva Autogiro Company was a British firm established in 1926 to develop the autogyro.
The company was set up to further the designs of Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer and pilot, with the financial backing of James George Weir, a Scot ...
, the engineer responsible for the invention of the autogyro, had spent all his funds on the research and creation of his first five prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
s. Therefore, in 1923, he turned to the Cuatro Vientos Aerodynamics Laboratory chief, Commander Emilio Herrera
Emilio Herrera Linares (13 February 1879, in Granada, Spain – 13 September 1967, in Geneve, Switzerland) was a Spanish military engineer and physicist.
Biography
He was born in Granada, 1879 and became interested in the military from a you ...
, who succeeded in persuading General Francisco Echagüe
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco (name), Paco". Francis of Assisi, San Francisco de Asís was known as '' ...
, the director of the Military Aviation Aeronautics Department, to take over the second stage in the research and development of Cierva's autogyros.
After several wind tunnel tests, Military Aviation built a Cierva C.6 autogyro in an Avro 504 frame. This machine, piloted by Captain Joaquín Loriga
Joaquín Loriga Taboada (Lalín, 23 September 1895 – Cuatro Vientos Airport 18 July 1927) was a Galician aviation pioneer. In 1926 as a Captain promoted, together with two pilots and three mechanical engineers, and completed the first long-distan ...
Taboada, made three flights, all of them in March 1924. One of those flights, the eight-minute trip from Cuatro Vientos airfield to Getafe airfield (), was considered a giant step for Cierva's autogyros.
The Cierva C.6 prototype was fitted with ailerons mounted on two small wings, also with elevators and a rudder. This complete three-axis control scheme was needed because the pilot had only limited control over the rotor. Only the front propeller was powered, so this aircraft could not hover, and could lose control at low speed. The vertical axis rotor spun freely; the faster the autogyro flew, the faster the rotor would spin and the greater lift it produced.
A replica of the Cierva C.6 was built to be shown in Murcia pavilion in Seville Expo '92 World's Fair. That replica can be now be seen in Museo del Aire (Spain)
Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics ( es, Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica), also known as Air Museum (), is an aviation museum located near of Madrid, is situated at Cuatro Vientos Air Base, Spain. The objective of the museum is to acqu ...
, Cuatro Vientos, Madrid, Spain.
Variants
;Cierva C.6: Prototype. ;Cierva C.6A: Powered by an Le Rhône 9Ja rotary piston engine. ;Cierva C.6B: ;Cierva C.6C: Powered by aClerget 9B
The Clerget 9B was a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine of the World War I era designed by Pierre Clerget. Manufactured in both France and Great Britain (Gwynnes Limited), it was used on such aircraft as the Sopwith Camel. The Clerget 9Bf was ...
rotary piston engine. Built in the United Kingdom as Avro Type 574.
;Cierva C.6D: Powered by a Clerget 9B rotary piston engine. Built in the United Kingdom as the Avro Type 575.
Specifications (C.6)
References
* Original pictures and data of this article were taken from "Museo del Aire", Cuatro Vientos, Madrid, SpainCierva c.6 / Avro 574
See also
{{Cierva aircraft 1920s Spanish experimental aircraft Single-engined tractor autogyros Aircraft first flown in 1924 Rotary-engined aircraft C.6