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| Ikenga
Cygnus 21TX -
1991
Developed
for Flying Doctors
Grand Champion: Albuquerque Intl. Airshow
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| A
little known fact is that small autogyros are the most numerous
types of homebuilt aircraft (over 4,000 built) and of all
of those there has never been an in-flight failure if built/assembled
according to plans; a record that fixed wing types or helicopters
cannot touch. |
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Cygnus
21TX was completed many months after the destruction of the Cygnus 21T
autogyro in a taxi test accident at Albuquerque's Coronado airport. It
was the last in a series of Ikenga autogiros built in New Mexico. In many
ways a duplicate of the prior ship, it featured a redesigned empennage
with all flying twin rudders and the addition of a California Highway
Patrol First Arrival Trauma Pack to set it apart. There
were many utility applications projected for the Ikenga autogyros and
their use as a vehicle for border patrol and flying doctors was high on
our list of marketing applications.
The
tractor design placed the prop in clean air and contributed to the Ikenga's
climb rate of 1,000fpm, cruise of 95mph, Vmax of 125mph, and a range of
320 miles on a full tank of automobile gas. The service ceiling was 14,000
feet and the fairings were S-Glass over polyurethane foam.
The
rotor control system for the Cygnus "T" series of autogyros
was unique in that the fore/aft sweep of the rotor was controlled by a
central pushrod that ran up the front of the forward mast to the front
of the offset gimbal rotorhead. The side-to-side sweep of the rotor was
controlled by two cables running from the joystick, up each side of the
forward mast, to a horizontal plate on the rotor head. The two-stroke
Suzuki 95hp engines used to power the Ikenga line of aircraft were oil
injected and liquid cooled.
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