In the spirit of past “One Week Wonder” kit aircraft built during previous AirVentures, AutoGyro USA is celebrating its 2000th MTO Sport kit by building it in their booth this week at AirVenture 2023. The AutoGyro Company, born in twenty years ago in Hildesheim, Germany, and prominent throughout Europe, has dealerships from coast to coast in the U.S. The MTO sport, a two-place tandem open cockpit gyro plane, was their first kit aircraft. Today, their lineup includes the two place tandem enclosed cockpit Calidus and the two place side-by-side enclosed cockpit Cavalon.
The MTO Sport gyroplane will take off in as little as 300 feet and will land in even less if there is any headwind on the runway at all. The 8.4 meter rotor disc (the blades are made in house by AutoGyro) will carry a gross weight of 1234 pounds. Full of gas (she burns auto fuel) the MTO sport can carry pilots up to 275 pounds in the front seat and 285 pounds in the back seat.
AutoGyro kits are surprisingly complete, including engine (Rotax 912 100 HP for the MTO Sport) paint, instruments and basic avionics. Each kit comes with a complete wiring harness. Most AutoGyro kits are completed by customers at their construction centers in as little as one week. The builder assist centers have all the tools and jigs necessary to complete aircraft to factory tolerances. Most of the time, this process costs between $3,500 and$4,500 on top of the kit price.
When the MTO Sport Serial Number 2000 came up in the production process, AutoGyro USA dealers Henry Boger in Chino, California and Frank Noe in Frederick Maryland joined forces to make the AirVenture one week build a reality. They formed a construction team lead by Craig McPherson the leader of Blue Skies Gyros in Blum Texas (87TX), who has personally overseen the construction of over 60 MTO Sports. Craig put together separate engine, mechanical/plumbing and electrical teams to tackle the construction. As of Tuesday at the show, the kit is going together faster than scheduled.
After AirVenture, the gyroplane will be given its airworthiness inspection and sold. Several potential buyers have been inquiring about the MTO Sport, but the first one to write a check for $87,500 (plus, presumably, tag, tax and title) will get to take her home.
For more information about AutoGyro and its gyroplanes go to Auto-Gyro.com or Gyro.life.
Update 7/31/2023: AutoGyro successfully completed building their MTO Sport in less than one week at AirVenture. Here is the finished product, already sold and on its way to a new owner:
