For a small airfield Dargaville has a lot of interesting aircraft, and another one has recently appeared. This one is the North American Rotorwerks Pit Bull SS gyroplane ZK-RUN (c/n NAR 62) which was registered to Brian Taylor of Whangarei on 6/7/16. As you can see in the photo from Jean 210 it is a tractor gyroplane which probably makes it the only tractor gyroplane in New Zealand. It is intended to be reminiscent of the tractor gyroplanes of the 1930s.
The Pit Bull SS is a small gyroplane with a fuselage that is only 13 feet 6 inches long. The rotor blades are 25 feet in length. The empty weight is 290 pounds and MAUW is 610 pounds. ZK-RUN is powered by a 50 HP Rotax 503 which gives a leisurely cruise speed of around 65 mph.
I don't think we will see many more Pit Bull gyroplanes in New Zealand (if any) as North American Rotorwerks is no longer in business.
I don't think we will see many more Pit Bull gyroplanes in New Zealand (if any) as North American Rotorwerks is no longer in business.
That's cool. I'm a big fan of the Cierva Autogiros and this is probably as close to one of those as we're likely to get anytime soon. Wicked! Probably a bit small for me, though.
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