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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last, the true story behind todays rotorcraft!, 10 Oct 2003
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Bruce Charnov's "From Autogiro to Gyroplane" is the first book to record in detail the fascinating 80-year history of autorotational rotorcraft from early beginnings to the present day.It is thoroughly researched, well illustrated, and provides a wealth of references for the interested reader to follow up. The fluent writing style sets this book apart from its academic peers in related fields. Dr. Charnov's enthusiasm for his topic leaps from the pages to carry one off in a stream of well-chosen words. Anyone who was present at this year's "British Rotorcraft Association Wallis Days" will recognise the style immediately, since he is one of those rare writers whose written 'voice' is the image of his eloquent spoken style. So we have a well-constructed and beautifully-written book, but what of the content? The chapter headings give a clue - starting with Don Juan de la Cierva, moving into his relationship with Harold Pitcairn, and the aircraft they developed jointly and separately, linking via the other makers into the preparation for war, with separate chapters on Axis and Allied Autogiros in wartime before moving to the post-war era of Bensen, Brock, Wallis, Tervamaki, Montgomerie and many more. I could go on indefinitely - the Rotordyne is of course there, and many, many others, because this book is not from an exclusively US perpective - it goes out of its way to recognise the contributions made all around the world. In later chapters some of the famous failures of the gyro world are analysed before taking a good look at the PRA and the impact of Ultralight gyros in the US. Finally, "The emerging Gyroplane future" discusses Magni, McCutchen, Mangoos, Pate, Pitbull, Gittens Ikenga, Vancraft, Air Command, Boyette Dominator and Little Wing, before moving on to the Groen Brothers Hawk series and the inspirational Cartercopter high-Mu project at Carter Aviation Technologies. Six pages of carefully selected further reading material, 26 pages of Bibliography, 18 pages of index are further evidence (if any were needed) that this is a serious academic work, that supports further research - but delivered in a warm, readable style, fleshed out with personal insights into the movers and shapers of the rotorcraft world. This book is great piece of work, may it be a huge success. Ben Mullett
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