The Kellett Autogiro Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from 1929 based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, named after founder

W. Wallace Kellett William Wallace Kellett (also W. Wallace Kellett) (December 20, 1891 – July 22, 1951) was an American aircraft executive and manufacturer, especially associated with rotary-wing aircraft. He was president of Kellett Autogiro Corporation and ...

History

The Kellett Aircraft was formed by W. Wallace Kellett and C. Townsend Ludington and their brothers, Rodney Kellett and Nicholas Ludington. In 1931, Kellett Autogiro licensed, from the

Autogiro Company of America The Pitcairn Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of light utility aircraft. An early proponent of the autogyro, the company, later known as the Autogiro Company of America among other names, remained in business until 1948. ...

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 accomplis ...

's and Harold Pitcairn's patents for rotary-wing aircraft. The first three designed were all typical

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 Scotti ...

designs and the more advanced KD-1 was similar to the contemporary

Cierva C.30 The Cierva C.30 is an autogyro designed by Juan de la Cierva and built under licence from the Cierva Autogiro Company by A V Roe & Co Ltd (Avro), Lioré-et-Olivier and Focke-Wulf. Design and development Before the experimental Cierva C.19 M ...

. The KD-1/G-1 was the first practical rotary-wing aircraft used by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

. The company stopped building autogyros in the late 1940s and switched to the design of helicopters. In the 1950s it built some ultra-light helicopters the RH-1 to test some rotor features and its last design the K-25 was an experimental convertiplane using tilt-rotors.

Aircraft

References

Bibliography

* * {{Kellett aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States