An aeroplane which international experts believe holds the secret of commercial flying of the future was the sensation in the Jast few minutes of Britain's big aircraft show.
After some half-a-million pounds worth of ultra-modern fighting and commercial aeroplanes had put up the most spectacular flying show Europe has seen, a new gyroplane, painted a vivid yellow, caused the aviation experts who had watched 300 m.p.h. planes screaming over their heads without lifting an eyebrow to break into spontaneous applause.
The aeroplane is the Hafner gyroplane, it requires no more than its own size as a take-off ground: it lands on little more space than that required to park a modern car. It climbs vertically like a lift and turns almost on its own axis, yet it can fly where it likes at 120 m.p.h. or can remain stationary in the air at flick of the control lever.
The machine has been developed in England over the past three years, and although the inventor is an Austrian, his craft has been perfected almost entirely in this country "That is what flying will eventually be," a member of the German Air Staff, who was watching the display, said as the gyroplane leaped off the ground and made a complete aero-barie display in the confined area of 200 yards.
So far, the machine is not in actual production. When it is, however, the price is expected to be round the £600 mark.
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