Wombat Gyrocopters was a British

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

based in St Columb,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and founded in 1991 by Chris Julian. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of

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 ...

s in the form kits for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 335. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. Julian was known as a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

speedway racer. The company was formed by Julian to manufacture kits for his

Wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are ada ...

autogyro design. On 4 November 1991 the CAA issued the Wombat a restricted ''Permit to Test'', allowing test flights to commence. In May 1997, when Julian was 60 years old, he was killed in the crash of a different model gyroglider at the Kemble airfield and that ended the enterprise. After Julian's death the rights to the Wombat design passed in July 2000 to former helicopter pilot Mark Harrisson. Harrisson had intended to put the aircraft back into production, but this plan was not completed. In 2013 he donated the prototype to

The Helicopter Museum The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, is a museum featuring a collection of more than 80 helicopters and autogyros from around the world, both civilian and military. It is based at the southeastern corner of the fo ...

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...

, where it arrived on 9 July 2013 and remains on display in the autogyro section of the museum. A total of four Wombats were registered in the United Kingdom with the CAA. All later had their registrations cancelled by the CAA.

Aircraft

References

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External links

Photo of the prototype Wombat in The Helicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Homebuilt aircraft Autogyros