The Pitcairn XO-61 was an American

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

Pitcairn Aircraft The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in t ...

. One of the last autogyros produced, in competition with the Kellett YO-60 and the

Sikorsky R-4 The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat helicopter that was designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass-produced helicopter and the first helicopter used by ...

, it fell victim to cooling problems with its rear-mounted engine and the coming of the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

with its ability to hover.Gregg, E. Stuart
"Above & Beyond: Jump Ship"
. ''Air & Space Smithsonian'', March 2001Harris, Franklin D
An Overview of Autogyros and The McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane
NASA/CR—2003–212799. NASA

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

, October 2003 Also known by the company model number PA-44 and the contract designation MX-157,Cully, George & Andreas Parsch
MX-1 to MX-499 Listing
designation-systems.net the contract for the XO-61 was taken over by G&A Aircraft upon G&A's acquisition of Pitcairn Aircraft.Wings of Freedom Winter 2007/2008
Volume 22 Number 4, Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association.

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*Cully, George & Andreas Parsch

*Gregg, E. Stuart

''Air & Space Smithsonian'', March 2001 Listing, designation-systems.net *Harris, Franklin D
An Overview of Autogyros and The McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane
NASA/CR—2003–212799. NASA

, October 2003
Wings of Freedom Winter 2007/2008
Volume 22 Number 4, Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association. O-061 1940s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Single-engined pusher autogyros Twin-boom aircraft {{aero-1940s-stub

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