Farrington Twinstar

The Farrington Twinstar is an American two-seat autogyro that was designed and produced by Farrington Aircraft of Paducah, Kentucky, a company owned by Don Farrington. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction. It first flew in 1993.

Design and development
The aircraft was designed to comply with the US Experimental - Amateur-built aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a two-seats-in tandem open cockpit with a windshield, tricycle landing gear without wheel pants, plus a tail caster. The tail consists of two vertical stabilizers and rudders. The acceptable power range is 120 to 180 hp and the standard engine used is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, four-stroke, dual-ignition 150 hp Lycoming O-320 in pusher configuration. The cabin width is 24 in.

The aircraft fuselage is made from a combination of welded steel and bolted-together aluminum tubing, with a fiberglass cockpit fairing. Its two-bladed rotor has a diameter of 30 ft. The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 700 lb and a gross weight of 1200 lb, giving a useful load of 500 lb. With full fuel of 20 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot, passengers and baggage is 380 lb.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a 150 hp engine is 200 ft and the landing roll is 50 ft.

The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 200 hours.

Operational history
By 1998 the company reported that 25 kits had been sold and five aircraft were completed and flying.

In March 2015 six examples were registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration, although a total of 12 had been registered at one time.