Improvements in Airplanes with Rotating Wings
18-04-1922 (application date) 01-01-1937 (expiry date) (Spain)
45 Pages on paper (application), 1 white and blue drawing on paper (plan); 21,2 × 34,1 cm
Archives of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office
ES81406
Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu was born in Murcia, Spain in 1895. Interested in engineering from a very early age, he constructed prototypes of airplanes and helicopters along with a group of his friends. Together with his friends he built the BCD1 (‘Cangrejo’), the first Spanish airplane that can be said to fly.
After some failures with traditional designs, Juan de la Cierva directed his attention to a different type of aircraft—these had rotating blades instead of fixed wings, allowing them to remain in motion at low speed. Thus he conceived the idea of autorotation, and he baptized this machine as ‘Autogyro.’
It would take until January 1923 before the first sufficiently stable flight of C.4 was achieved, after which Juan de la Cierva dedicated himself to building a new version, the C.5.
The technical legacy of Juan de la Cierva is reflected in the more than 120 patents related to the ‘Autogyro’ that he recorded during his life. In 1932, by virtue of the merits obtained in the aeronautical field, Juan de la Cierva was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Aeronautical Federation.
He died on 9 December 1936, in an aircraft accident at Croydon airport in England.