Friday, October 9

Preview: How about some Spanish fly-er? Miniart's 35th scale Cierva C.30A...

The Spanish get a turn today - With MiniArt bringing out its version of their well-received autogyro in Spanish service. We have the photos of some original Spanish aircraft in service and details of the contents of this forthcoming kit in our preview...
New MiniArt Kit Coming Soon:

Spanish Cierva C.30A
From MiniArt Models
1/35th scale
Kit No #41016 
Clear Parts Included
Hatches Can Be Open Or Closed
Photo-etched Parts Included
Decal Sheet For 5 Variants
The Subject: 
In 1924 Spain, Don Juan de la Cierva produced the first autogiro by affixing a rotor on a pylon and mounting it on a fuselage of a World War I Avro 504 aircraft. After several crashes and redesigns, he figured out how to make it fly and began to produce and display them. Because they had fixed rotor-heads, the earlier machines used movable control surfaces like an aeroplane for control.
With the production of the C.30, the autogiro began to come into its own—equipped with a control column extending down to the cockpit where the pilot could control the autogiro by tilting the rotor head. When the pilot moves the stick sideways, the autogiro assumes the corresponding angle of bank. When he pushes the column forward, the rotor tilts back, increasing the angle of attack, and the autogiro climbs. Yaw is still controlled like an aeroplane, with foot pedals operating a rudder at the rear. This new control system gave the pilot far more control than the earlier versions.
The Cierva C.30A marked a major step forward in rotorcraft development, being the first production autogiro in which the engine was geared directly to drive the rotor blades for take-off. The degree of direct control was increased still further by having the control column, which acted directly on the rotor, suspended from the pylon so that the rotor head could be tilted in any direction to produce the manoeuvre desired. 
The new-style control system was first installed in G-ABXP, a Cierva C.19 designated Mk.V with a 100hp Genet Major I engine. This was basically a C.19 Mk.IV modified to have a clutch and transmission shaft, a tilting rotor head and (later) a small, fixed tailplane.
Take-off run of the C.30 was about 30 yards (27.43m), while the landing was achieved in about 3 yards (2.74m) with the rotor blades autorotating. Another 1933 prototype was G-ACKA, the first C.30P, with 140hp Genet Major 1A, folding rotor blades and other improvements. 
Avro Lioré-et-Olivier & Focke-Wulf all obtained the licence to build their own models and this aircraft can be seen in many different guises all over the world at the time.

This new kit from MiniArt:
This kit from MiniArt is based on their earlier autogyro's in this scale with plastic injection parts. Clear parts are included, the rotors can turn of course, and all of the hatches can be posed open or closed. Thi kit has all of the decals for the ones used in Spanish service.
The Sprues for this kit (in CAD)
Photo-etched Parts Included & Decal Sheet are included
Marking for 5 variants are included - all from Spanish aircraft in service