Pitcairn OP-1
type of aircraft
The Pitcairn OP-1 (manufacturer designation: PCA-2) was the first rotary-wing aircraft to be seriously evaluated by any of the world's major air forces. The aircraft was a relatively new type, an autogyro. Pitcairn's model was never put into production for any military.
Development
The Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company, established by Harold Frederick Pitcairn, designed the PCA-2 based on the autogiros of Juan de la Cierva. The resulting design had a standard aircraft fuselage and powerplant, with a standard tail. However, it sported short, stubby wings, angled up at the wingtips. Above the cockpit was the rotor, consisting of three blades. The engine usually drove a standard propeller, on a vertical plane, in front of the aircraft. However, the engine could be geared to the horizontal rotor during takeoff or landing. The horizontal rotor, while in flight, did not draw energy from the engine but rather generated lift from airspeed.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pitcairn OP-1” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.