Wings of Tomorrow: The Story of the Autogiro

This is a high quality facsimile of Wings of Tomorrow by Juan De La Cierva and Don Rose, originally published in 1931. This book describes the conception and invention of the Autogiro and its implementation in the early days of aviation. It is told from the perspective of Juan De La Cierva, one of the leading men in the development of the Autogiro. The first real flying machine was an airplane; it seemed for many years that all such craft must be airplanes, for there were few signs of promise and none of success in any other applications of mechanical principles to the problem of flight. There were some scattering efforts to build helicopters and ornithopters, but none that proved remotely successful. Juan De La Cierva conceived the idea to look in another direction and this was the real genesis of the Autogiro. De La Cierva was convinced by experience and his studies that it was wrong to assume that the only practical heavier-than-air craft was the airplane. He went back to the fundamental idea of the flying machine, recognizing that the conventional airplane is one of its types but not necessarily the only one. Not even, indeed, the best one, for the approximate perfection of the airplane had resulted in a flying machine of definitely limited performance, efficiency and dependability. Chapters: Introduction: Flying by Machinery 1. Schooldays in Spain 2. Spain's First Airplane 3. The Crack-Up of a Career 4. A Problem in Theoretical Aeronautics 5. A New Theory of Wings 6. The Ugly Ducklings 7. The Secret of Success 8. Flying on a Windmill 9. The Autogiro in America 10. Performing in Public 11. Four-Wheel Breaks 12. Happy Landings 13. The Family Flying Machine 14. Autogiros and the Air Mail 15. Five-Acre Airports 16. Speed, Ceiling and Pay Load 17. Industry and the Autogiro 18. The Future of the Autogiro 19. The Wings of Tomorrow 20. The Theory of the Autogiro: Some Technical Considerations 21. A Pilot's Manual for the Autogiro, by James G. Ray 22. Tribute and Testimony

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