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Neither Mysterious nor Miraculous [Image on top left of page] "For the Greatest Achievement in American Aviation" (Extract from article in May, 1931, issue of The National Aeronautic Magazine) "Aviation's dramatic march of progress from Orville Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk to the commanding position it bow holds in the affairs of the Nation was strikingly symbolized on April 22 when President Hoover in behalf of the National Aeronautic Association presented the Collier Trophy for 1930 to Harold F. Pitcairn and his associates, Geoffrey S. Childs, Edwin T. Asplundh, James G. Ray and Andrew E. Larsen. "The was a note also of prophecy in the ceremony for the occasion included a flying demonstration that a few short years ago even the most fanciful would have held impossible. "' For the greatest achievement in aviation in America the value of which has been demonstrated by actual use during the previous year,' reads the inscription on the famous trophy, the awarding of which has been for many years an annual function of the National Aeronautic Association. For 1930 the award was made for the development and demonstrated of the autogiro, that remarkable new type aircraft considered by many the most revolutionary development in heavier-than-air craft since the first flight of the Wright brothers in 1903." THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE AUTOGIRO TO AVIATION, RESULTS FROM ITS PROVABLE CORRECTNESS ANYONE with a sufficient knowledge of the theory of flight and a capacity for higher mathematics can understand and prove correctness of the Autogiro principal. For more than ten years, engineers have been concentrating upon the problem now successfully solved in the Autogiro. The problem itself was clear cut-to develop a type of aircraft which would be free of the airplane's complete dependence upon high speed for take-off, support in the air, and landing-hence immune to serious consequences from motor failure or from loss of headway through what ever cause. Freedom from the airplane's requirements of huge, prepared landing fields would follow as an inevitable result. The Autogiro's success is the result of well-known and long-established principles in a distinctly bew method of application. Both airplane and Autogiro are sustained in flight by forces resulting forces resulting from the rapid movement of lifting surfaces through the air (wings in the case of the airplane, rotor-blades in the case of the Autogiro). The one essential difference between them is this: The airplane's wings are fixed. Their movement through the air is therefore solely dependent upon the forward speed of the entire craft. On the contrary, the movement of the Autogiro's blades is independent of the speed of the craft itself. The speed of the blades rotation is practically constant, whether the Autogiro is traveling fast or slow, hovering or descending. It is not affected even by motor failure. To the one all-important difference are traceable all the Autogiro's distinctive characteristics-its ability to stop in the air, hover momentarily, descend vertically and slowly, rise sharply; its immunity to spins or other critical situations; its ease of control and maneuverability. The Autogiro Company of America us not a manufacturing or selling company. It is solely an engineering and licensing organization. It owns and controls, exclusively all Autogiro patent rights in the United States. Manufacturing companies of high standing will be licensed to build Autogiros with the full co-operation of our engineering staff. Present licensees are: Buhl Aircraft Company, Detroit, Mich.; Kellett Aircraft Corp., Philadelphia, Oa.; Pitcairn Aircraft, Inc, Willow Grove, Pa. [AUTOGIRO LOGO] AUTOGIRO COMPANY OF AMERICA --- LAND TITLE BUILDING ---PHILADELPHIA
