Cyclogyro

The cyclogyro, or cyclocopter, is an aircraft design that uses cycloidal rotors which consist of airfoils rotating around a horizontal axis for both lift and thrust. They are capable of vertical take off and landing and hovering performance like a helicopter, without the same disadvantages such as limited forward speed, very high noise and vibration levels, limited flight altitude etc. The biggest hope of Cyclocopter developers which remains unrealised in any flying prototypes is to achieve higher efficiency in terms of lift per engine horsepower (aka Power Loading) which would translate into higher lifting capability and longer flight range. Although a number of cyclogyros were built in the 1930s, none were known to have successfully flown until 2011. The cyclogyro should not be mistaken for flettner airplanes, the unsuccessful and aerodynamically different aircraft designs using cylindrical wings which attempted to harness the Magnus effect.