Juan de La Cierva - Legacy

Legacy

De la Cierva’s work on rotor dynamics and control made possible the modern helicopter, whose development as a practical means of flight had been prevented by these problems. The understanding that he established is applicable to all rotor-winged aircraft.

De La Cierva's death in an aeroplane crash prevented him from fulfilling his plans to build a useful and reliable aircraft capable of vertical flight, but it was his technology and the vision outlined in his writings and speeches that were used to achieve this goal shortly after his death. Technology developed for the autogyro was used by experimenters in the development of the Fw 61, which was flown in 1936 by Cierva Autogiro Company licensee Focke-Achgelis. His innovations led to the Cierva C.38 Gyrodyne, which utilized a powered rotor for hovering and low speed flight, and a side-mounted propeller for torque correction and propulsion in cruise flight. This was followed by the development of the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne, first flown in 1947, proving Cierva's argument that such an aircraft would be superior to a helicopter, which he regarded as excessively complex.