Complimentary Service Via Autogyro

CIV

The Spanish aircraft engineer Juan de la Cierva invented the autogyro in 1923. Autogyros are hybrid vehicles similar to airplanes in that they have propellers (or jet engines) for thrust, and similar to helicopters in that they have rotors for lift. They may also have stubby wings for both lift and flight stability.

An autogyro lands in Miami’s Bayfront Park in 1931

Contemplating that he would be aviation’s version of Henry Ford, de la Cierva imagined the autogyro as a mass-produced personal vehicle, essentially a flying family car, which everyone could own. Unfortunately for de la Cierva the autogyro proved to be rather harder and more dangerous to learn to fly than a car is to learn to drive, and he was never able to produce them in sufficient numbers to bring the price down within range of the typical family’s pocketbook. They were also a bit before their time; had they been introduced after Lindbergh’s flight they might have caught on. Increasing governmental regulation of the airways and the Great Depression meant that the autogyro became and remained a rich man’s oddity. 

More common in Europe than in the United States, the autogyro (which is still produced today) had a brief heyday at the end of the Soaring Twenties. The luxury hotels of downtown Miami operated complimentary autogyro shuttle services for guests seeking to spend their days on the beach. When Pan Am’s Dinner Key facility opened in 1931, the hotels added the airport to their list of shuttle stops. So while Pan American itself never operated autogyros, autogyros were a common sight in the air around Dinner Key. 

 

The five passenger Pitcairn autogyro was used to shuttle hotel guests to Miami’s offshore beaches and to Dinner Key. When hotels began to rise in Miami Beach the autogyros became unnecessary

The autogyro shuttles disappeared as hotels developed along the shores of Miami Beach. Unable to compete with the beachfront resorts, most of Miami’s posh hotels either moved their operations to the shore or went out of business.