The Air Command Commander 147A 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 ...

that was designed and produced by

Air Command International Air Command International, Inc. is an American aircraft manufacturer originally based in Wylie, Texas, later in Caddo Mills, Texas and now in River Falls, Wisconsin. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of autogyros in the form ...

when it was located in

Wylie, Texas Wylie is a city and northeastern suburb of Dallas, that was once solely located in Collin County, but now extends into neighboring Dallas and Rockwall counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located on State Route 78 about northeast of centr ...

. Now out of production, the aircraft was intended to be supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 316. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. The only example known to have been registered with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

(FAA) was the factory prototype, which was destroyed in a fatal

test flight Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...

crash in

Caddo Mills, Texas Caddo Mills ( ) is a city in Hunt County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,338 at the 2010 census, up from 1,149 at the 2000 census. Geography Caddo Mills is located in western Hunt County at (33.064748, –96.229040). Texas State Hig ...

in July 1998.

Design and development

The Commander 147A was designed to comply with the US homebuilt aircraft rules. It featured a Skywheels single main rotor, a two-seats-in

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

enclosed cockpit,

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

with

wheel pants An aircraft fairing is a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline and reduce drag.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, Third Edition'', page 206. Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc, Newcastle Washington, 1997. ...

, plus a small tail

caster A caster (or castor) is an undriven wheel that is designed to be attached to the bottom of a larger object (the "vehicle") to enable that object to be moved. Casters are used in numerous applications, including shopping carts, office chairs, ...

and a Mazda 13B

Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. ...

engine in pusher configuration. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

was made from bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

tubing with a

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

fairing. Its two-bladed rotor had a diameter of . The aircraft had a standard empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . Factory options included a long-range fuel tank, electric trim and a main rotor pre-rotator.

Operational history

The factory prototype, serial number ''001'', registration number ''N147GY'', suffered a loss of rotor RPM while maneuvering over a runway at Caddo Mills Municipal Airport during a factory test flight on 15 July 1998. The rotor blades struck the tail boom, and the aircraft descended and impacted the ground in a nose-low attitude. A post-crash fire consumed the main wreckage, and the pilot, who was the sole occupant, was killed. The accident was attributed to ''"the pilot's failure to maintain rotor rpm while maneuvering, which resulted in the main rotor blades contacting the tail section of the gyroplane."'' By May 2018, no examples were registered in the United States, with only ''N147GY'' listed as having been registered at one time; it is listed as "destroyed".

Specifications (Commander 147A)

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References

External links

Photo of an Air Command Commander 147A
{{Air Command International aircraft Commander 147A 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined pusher autogyros Aircraft first flown in 1995

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Commander 147A)

See also

References

External links