Cierva Named Lecture 2012

The first Cierva Lecture took place at a time when sustained autorotative flight, Juan de la Cierva’s 1923 invention, appeared about to reemerge as a participant in commercial aviation. Following the Autogiro’s subordination to the seemingly superior capabilities of the mechanically-driven rotor of the helicopter, the new Fairey Rotodyne’s prototype broke through the helicopter’s limits of speed, payload, and range. However, the U.K.’s economic crisis prevented the reemergence of this remarkable technology, relegating the Autogiro to the obscurity of amateur-built aircraft.