Here is something a little different. An autogyro that looks like a helicopter that flies like a plane; and best of all it's a scratch built foamy.

It is modeled after the awesome AH-64. I named this one the AG-64; AG stands for autogyro. Apache Longbow.

If you're interested in how this came from concept to contraption check out this thread in the autogyro forum.

This little whirly bird is fairly easy to fly and it is made from epp so I'm hoping it will have a long useful life. It is not suited to beginners, however and takes a little more skill to fly than does a trainer plane.

I hope you guys enjoy the video, I sure enjoyed making it!


Note that gyrocopters are trickier designs to get to fly right. Don't deviate from the plans; especially the rotor design; or chances are it won't fly and you'll have wasted time and money. Please pay close attention to the glue details for the rotor blades...CRITICAL.

Updated Plans

Apache Longbow autogyro (4 min 22 sec)

Updated Pans. Once again Ken (dz1sfb) has done an absolutely great job producing plans.

Note that gyrocopters are trickier designs to get to fly right. Don't deviate from the plans; especially the rotor design; or chances are it won't fly and you'll have wasted time and money. Please pay close attention to the glue details for the rotor blades...CRITICAL.
Material

Airframe 9mm 1.3 lb epp, 3mm carbon tubes

Rotor 3mm epp, 3mm carbon tubes

Hub: 1/16 music wire, 3/32 brass tubing, 1/16 ply and 1/8 balsa

Guts

Motor Turnigy 2730-1500, 8043 prop

Plastic motor stick

Servos 2 or 3 of HXT 500 depending on 3 or 4 ch set up

Battery 3s - 360 mAh Rhino or similar

Mystery 12 A esc

Build photos.

The building techniques are pretty much the same as most epp planes and pretty easy to do.

Please note that the plans are drawn up for a "flat build". this means that all of the horizontal fuse fins and stub wing pieces are assembled first then, the vertical pieces get added. the result are just the same, but I wanted to avoid confusion between the build photos and the plans. Also the plans show a conventional elevator and not taileronss as shown in these photos.

Wow, pretty crazy. I noticed the change on the avatar pic last night and was wondering what that was all about. Saw a few pages of the autogyro thread you started for the cyclone and was very impressed with the rotor design. This looks like a very cool indoor flyer.

Diggs

is there a motor for the main rotor or is it just powered by air?
Thats really cool and people who see it would probably be wondering why it was flying so airplaneish

Air.

Looks like fun.. Awaiting the plans!

Very cool.

Gyrocopter or something like that... very unique design !!

Has it passed the flying test? Will it ROG ?

Oh now that is awesome..

Holy crap LF!!!

Now that is awesome! The VTOL stuff was cool but this is amazing!!!

I think i am going to have to get into some autogyro stuff now!

Thanks Guys! I was hoping I wasn't the only one that thought this might be a cool concept.

I'm really happy with how well if flies already. I still have some fine tuning to do but at least I'm at the stage where I feel like I've succeeded with this project, so now it is a matter of how far I can take it.

Here is an inspirational video of the "real deal" doing some aerobatics.

AH-63 Apache (0 min 52 sec)

Sorry for the silly questions... another great build Dan!

When i get back from my trip to China i may just have to put one of these together.

After watching the video i was wondering if it would float a little better with larger rotor blades. It seemed to be a bit heavy when it was flying around.

Did you round off your rotor blades at all? Did you use any kind of bearing on the rotor hub? I could see how a really slippery rotor would really help the performance.

Pretty excited about this one!

Wow....that's really cool Dan. Looks like you have another winner. I hope to get a chance to fly it at the next indoor event.