Abstract:
The PA-36 Autogiro, arguably the most beautiful early rotary-wing aircraft, carried Harold F. Pitcairn's hopes, dreams and commitment to autorotational flight. His company had begun development in early 1937, with the goal of having it flying in time for the public hearings for the Dorsey–Logan Bill that was to fund Autogiro development and to demonstrate before Congress. That did not happen as by those hearings in April 1938, the project was 6-9 months behind schedule. Construction of the shiny aluminum aircraft by the Luscombe Company was supervised by Agnew Larsen, and its workers promptly dubbed it 'Larsen's Goon' - in many ways the fate of the PA-36 was sealed on the final day of the Dorsey-Logan Bill hearings when the object of the funding was changed from 'Autogiro' to 'rotary-wing aircraft', a seemingly-innocuous alteration that was to insure that no Autogiro received government support. The developmental history of the PA-36, the personalities that brought it to fruition and the decision-making that doomed it have been forgotten - unjustly so, for this most beautiful of American Autogiros deserved to be remembered, for when it was withdrawn from service in mid 1941 and subsequently cut up for scrap in WWII, the dream of an American Autogiro industry died with it.