American vs European vs Australasian designs

[rtfm]

HI,
I've obviously spent most of my online browsing time (as far as gyros are concerned) in American or Aussie/NZ sites. The designs are great, but (dare I say this out loud?) a little formulaic. Not that this is a bad thing. Especially when the formula seems to be: CLT, CLT, CLT.

However, I've spent quite a while in the autogire.com web site over the past few days (and with the help of Babelfish) have explored many of its pages. The richness of design ideas, the wild diversity of designs and the sheer beauty of some of the lines is quite breathtaking. Without a doubt the folk who gave us Ferraris, Porches and Mercedes Benz are alive and well in the gyro world over there.

Yet, I couldn't but notice (excuse the idiosyncracies of a lonely gyro designer, if you will) the notable ignorance of CLT in many of the beautiful creations on display. HTL gyros still reign over there, as far as I can tell. Let's face it - it is just EASIER to design something if you don't have to worry about the bloody prop hitting the ground... And I saw one georgeous single place, fully enclosed gull-wing design with about 20/80 distribution of lateral surface. Fly it into a stiff breeze, and you'll spin like a top!

Having said all this, I invite you to take the time to check out the rich variety of design ideas which are taking root there. Compared with the US and Australasia, I think they are streets ahead, ideas-wise. But (and this is my own humble opinion - please don't shoot me down in flames), I think they still haven't learned the lesson of the CLT imperative. When they get THIS right, watcvh out - the design flair evident in Europe makes the rest of us look ponderous.

Regards,
Duncan

[Aussie_Paul]

Absolutely Duncan. They make everything with beautiful lines. I would rather stable than beautiful, BUT having both would be even better.

Aussie Paul.