Air Copter A3C

The Air Copter A3C is a French autogyro, designed and produced by Air Copter of Lherm, Haute-Garonne. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Design and development
The A3C was designed to comply with amateur-built aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a two-seat side-by-side configuration enclosed cockpit with a windshield, tricycle landing gear and a four-cylinder, air and liquid-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition, turbocharged 115 hp Rotax 914 or a normally-aspirated 100 hp Rotax 912S engine mounted in pusher configuration.

Air Copter is well known as a designer and manufacturer of gyroplane rotor blades and other dynamic components and they also make their own components for the A3C. The aircraft's 8.40 m diameter rotor has a chord of 20 cm and employs a NACA 8H12 airfoil. The main rotor has a pre-rotator to shorten take-off distance. The aircraft has an empty weight of 250 kg and a gross weight of 450 kg, giving a useful load of 200 kg.