What does the word "Gyrocopter" mean?

ditto

ditto

When i fly out of controlled airspace and use the term gyroplane, i get the same thing. They refer to my dominator as a gyrocopter. I try to use the word gyroplane , but in reply i get confusion from the tower. It is difficult for me to use the the term gyroplane since i grew up around my father flying his Bensen gyrocopter. I compromised with the tower and myself and started referring to myself as Gyro 968JC.
I usually announce I'm experimental gyrocopter just because when I use the term gyroplane I frequently get "what's that" back on frequency.

I figure using the term copter lets them know to be looking for something with rotor blades that moves relatively slow, is pretty small, and not in the normal pattern.

I fly from a non-towered field where things are somewhat casual and usually not real busy.

I've never really heard to much flak against gyros where I fly, though there has been at least one fatal accident and one renegade who would try to herd the neighbors horses with his gyro.
 
I always used the word Gyrocopter. Every time I heard it it made me (and still makes) me feel enthusiastic. It's a whole history hidden behind it and I like it. Gyrocopter pilot (for me) is a pilot who is flying a gyro. I don't have the same feeling if I say gyroplane or autogyro. It is just me, :der: as always.....
Doug Riley's post above .....once that happens, the trademark holder no longer has exclusive rights to the name, is right.
Giorgos
 
Gyrocopter, gyroplane, autogyro, gyro, to me it's pretty much all the same. Just a wonderful machine that gives us a chance to 'slip the surly bonds'.
 
I don't like using the term Gyrocopter for many of the above stated reasons.

Marginally better is Gyroplane but that tends to confuse people because they think it is some kind of "plane".

I like the term Autogyro. It does not carry the negative stigma, does not make people think your craft is some kind of plane, it is nostalgic and most importantly....

That is what the INVENTOR named the craft!

.
 
Right, Tim. Cierva was sharp about his IP (intellectual property) registrations. His company trademarked "autogiro" in addition to obtaining patents.

I think that's why the FAA has steered clear of the word in its regs. They dredged up the obscure "gyroplane" to identify a rotorcraft with normally-autorotating rotors. As prior posters have noted, even FAA employees in control towers don't recognize the word.

The U.S. trademark for "autogiro" has expired, from the looks of the PTO database. You can't keep a trademark registered unless you actually use it on a product or service. Sorta like "elevator," it's now become generic. Many people spell it "autogyro" when not referring to a Cierva-family machine.

Sorry to babble. Trademarks are part of what I do for a living, so posting on the subject during work hours is almost not goofing off... almost...
 
Doug,

That is my understanding also (via "From Autogyro to Gyroplane").

I thought that Cierva trademarked Autogiro and that Autogyro has always been free to use.

I love the Magni ads on Ultraflight Radio. I think they have the right idea for new marketing!

.
 
Yup, Tim, I've heard that explanation, too. It's a fallacy, though.

If a word is pronounced the same as a valid trademark but is spelled differently, then it's still an infringement. IOW, "autogyro" wouldn't actually save you from an infringement of "autogiro." You can't sell a knockoff "Krest" toothpaste and get away with it.

Bob Kopp's "Gyro-Kopp-ter" would infringe Bensen's trademark if Bensen's trademark still existed. But of course it's long gone, so Bob's probably safe from a trademark fight.
 
It's just what your used to saying, like asking for a Kleenex, it doesn't really matter that it's really a facial tissue. There's some places that Coke is used for a soda, or pop, or soda water regardless of the actual name of the beverage. The only term used that I see is actually very wrong is helicopter which some people that don't know the difference will call a gyroplane.
 
Don't forget Don Farrington, Don went a long way to avoid association with "gyros" by re-naming his 18A the "Heliplane".
 
When I had my 50th birthday, my wife gave me a present (an album full with
pictures and caricatures from my very young age till that day. The second page had this caricature with my first day in school and the first word I learnt.
Giorgos
 

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Molnari, Inc. ?

Molnari, Inc. ?

Well, no response yet, so I'll ask again -

does anybody know who/what might be behind Molnari, Inc, of Plano, TX, with a pending tm registration application for "Gyrocopter"?

From what I know from my limited time in Plano, it was headquarters for Ross Perot's EDS, and home to a young Lance Armstrong, but I know nothing of any gyro activity there.
 
...Gyroplane...tends to confuse people because they think it is some kind of "plane".

In the air traffic control world, that might not be a bad thing. Controllers have occasionally cleared incoming gyros for landing at the heliport, or called for a hover taxi, which they'd never do for an airplane.

From ATC's standpoint, if they'd think of gyros simply as airplanes with limited speed, the ability to descent very steeply, and no threat of stalling in turns, they'd route them correctly around the pattern and airport.
 
Try in portuguese . . .aeronave de asa rotativa, no short cut so far.
But if you use giroplano it will sufice,
The traditionalist still call it gyrocopter, very few down here indeed . . .most new guys never seen one.
Giroplano is a modern autogiro and the main difference will be the pusher prop.
Heron
 
Giorgos, from school onward you were a marked man for this sport.

As for being asked for a hover taxi, not a problem, a swift 'Unable to comply' will put them straight.

Always amused me the deference paid to the tower, and to controllers in general. They are there for us, we are not there for them.

We by all means have to follow their instructions, to a point. And certainly allways be polite, but, never forget you have the final word on what your machine can or cannot do. What you will or won't do. Just be prepared to have a very good reason for it.

Saw a plane load of passengers die in 1976 because a pilot tried to follow the towers instructions to clear the active runway instead of going ahead with an emergency evacuation of passengers from a Saudia Tristar at Riyadh International Airport on the runway as he had requested to do.
 
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.......For me, "gyrocopter" as a generic term also carries baggage, recalling the days of self-training, primitive powerplants and aircraft systems, and a pervasive outlaw culture. Why any manufacturer or homebuilder would want to use that term for anything other than a Bensen (or Ken Brock's clone) is beyond me.
Exactly!

The reasons you have given is the reason that 'gyroplane' was suggested at a Mentone forum (might have been the chapter's meeting) as the preferred reference when talking about gyros. It is felt that there is too much negativity associated with the word gyrocopter in the minds of the public so we are all encouraged to use gyroplane instead of gyrocopter in discussions.
 
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