>>1789670Compare the design in the picture with the one in the video, and I'll note the most significant differences with regards with safety:
1) The landing gear in the bensen gyro is extremely undersized. Not only is it incapable of absorbing any impact, it has a very small trackwidth and wheelbase. Thus it not only topples sideways very easily, but the gyro also pitches up and down on the ground - worse, the pilot is required to make the difficult balancing act of holding the front wheel above ground in order to load the rotor before takeoff (note that a regular aircraft takes off immediately once it pitches up, but not an unloaded autogyro), while in the conventional gear on cierva design the whole plane is already pitched up with the optimum attitude and all the pilot has to do to take off is to gain speed. Modern designs like
>>1787984 have improved this issue somewhat by adding some compliance), but I find it unbelievable they STILL require the front wheel balancing act instead of increasing the wheelbase while dialling in the correct ground pitch - they could even change to a tadpole configuration with two steering front wheels, but that isn´t strictly necessary.
The importance of a proper landing gear cannot be understated, considering the amount of accidents on takeoff and landing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA3aEY5CmzEcont
