Comparing fuel economy between Autogyros and Fixed Wing Aircraft

 

Here's a solid comparison of Rotax-powered conventional small aircraft (fixed-wing LSA/ultralight) vs. autogyros — both platforms commonly use the same Rotax engines, so the difference comes down to aerodynamics and airframe efficiency.

The Same Engine, Different Efficiency

Most autogyros and light sport aircraft (LSA) use the Rotax 912, 914, or 912iS engine family. Because the engine itself is shared, fuel economy differences come from how each airframe uses the power — not the engine's inherent burn rate.^[1]

Conventional Small Aircraft (Fixed-Wing LSA)

Fixed-wing LSAs with the Rotax 912 are among the most fuel-efficient powered aircraft flying. At cruise (around 100–125 mph), typical figures are:

Aircraft	Engine	Fuel Burn (gph)	Cruise Speed	~MPG
Pipistrel Alpha Trainer	Rotax 912 UL	~3 gph	~95 mph	~30–32 mpg
Flight Design CTLSi	Rotax 912 iS	~4 gph	~130 mph	~30–33 mpg
Tecnam P2008	Rotax 912	~4.5 gph	~120 mph	~27 mpg
Aeroprakt A22 Foxbat	Rotax 912 ULS	~4 gph	~100 mph	~25 mpg

A Rotax 912 iS-powered fixed-wing aircraft, when set at just under 5,000 rpm, can consistently achieve about 30 miles per gallon at ~125 mph. The 912 iS injection system specifically delivers up to 36% better fuel efficiency than the older carbureted 912 ULS in ECO mode. At 75% cruise power, the standard 912 ULS burns roughly 4.9–5.3 US gal/hr.^[2][3][4]

Autogyros (Gyroplanes)

Autogyros use a free-spinning rotor for lift (like a helicopter) and a pusher/tractor propeller for thrust. The rotor generates significant drag compared to a fixed wing, which is the key efficiency penalty. That said, autogyros are still remarkably economical compared to helicopters.^[5]

Gyroplane	Engine	Fuel Burn (gph)	Cruise Speed	~MPG
MTO Sport (AutoGyro)	Rotax 912	3.5–4.5 gph	90–100 mph	~20–25 mpg
Cavalon (AutoGyro)	Rotax 912 ULS	4.5–5.5 gph	95–105 mph	~18–22 mpg
Magni M24	Rotax 912 / 914	4.0–5.0 gph	85–95 mph	~17–22 mpg
AG-915 Gyrocopter	Rotax 915 iS	~4.6 gph	90 mph	~20 mpg

A Cavalon autogyro burns roughly 5 gallons per hour, and the MTO Sport typically runs 3–4.5 gph depending on speed and load. A real-world Rotax 912 iS autogyro user reported 25.5 mpg at 80 knots (92 mph) — though this is at the efficient end. The AOPA noted a gyroplane "burns about 4 gallons per hour" at cruise.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Head-to-Head Summary

Metric	Fixed-Wing LSA	Autogyro
Typical fuel burn	3–5 gph	3.5–6 gph
Typical cruise speed	100–135 mph	80–110 mph
Typical MPG	25–33 mpg	17–26 mpg
Best case MPG	~33 mpg (912 iS)	~25–26 mpg

Why Autogyros Use More Fuel

The physics of autogyro flight require roughly twice the horsepower per seat compared to a fixed-wing aircraft to achieve lift. The free-spinning rotor creates induced drag that a fixed wing doesn't have. This means that even with identical Rotax engines turning at identical RPMs, the autogyro will be slower and/or burn more fuel to cover the same distance. However, autogyros compensate with near-zero landing distances, the ability to fly very slowly without stalling, and exceptional stability in turbulence — making the modest fuel penalty a worthwhile trade for many pilots.^[5]

In practical terms, expect a fixed-wing LSA to achieve roughly 25–33 mpg, while a Rotax-powered autogyro typically manages 17–26 mpg — about 20–30% less efficient for the same engine and similar conditions.^[3][8][6][1]

⁂

• https://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=188956  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgrP4JkSUsI 
• https://generalaviationnews.com/2013/06/27/rotax-912-is-better-than-predicted/  
• https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/912-914-technical-questions/4353-fuel-consumption-us-gal-hr 
• http://www.flying-directory.com/0809/images/e-wdla0809-rotorwings.pdf  
• https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/how-many-miles-per-gallon-do-you-get-out-of-your-gyro.45445/  
• https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/january/pilot/all-around-winner 
• https://www.oreateai.com/blog/exploring-the-cavalon-gyrocopter-your-ticket-to-personal-aviation/f25e5314fabba88a179045149b919ab6  
• https://www.blueskies.flights/autogyro 
• https://blueskies.flights/autogyro/ 
• https://avsport.org/acft/Rotax/912uls_info.pdf 
• https://www.aeroexpo.online/prod/magni-gyro-srl/product-176057-55151.html 
• https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/912-914-technical-questions/11126-fuel-consumption_1?start=15 
• http://www.ultralightnews.com/rotaxinfo/rotax912-fuelconsumption.html 
• https://autogyrousa.com/models/cavalon/ 
• https://www.bazl.admin.ch/dam/bazl/de/dokumente/Fachleute/Regulationen_und_Grundlagen/p004foca_rotax914.pdf.download.pdf/p004foca_rotax914.pdf 
• https://dev310.rotaxowner.com/en/912-914-technical-questions/11053-912uls-fuel-consumption-data 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotax_914 
• https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/rotax-914-power-setting-question.45410/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/204208050410317/posts/1461952207969222/ 
• https://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=168591 
• https://dev310.rotaxowner.com/en/general-tech-discussion/4179-914-912-fuel-flow-comperesation-data 
• https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/comparisons-of-flight-dynamics-fixed-wing-to-gyro.29135/ 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TtuGspl7Tc 
• https://www.airgyro.com/Features/ 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF2SAw2z-ZA 
• https://gofly.sportaviationcenter.com/lsa/airplane-light-sport-aircraft/airplane-light-sport-aircraft-operation-maintenance-inspection/rotax-engine-operations-maintenance/rotax-aircraft-engine-912-fuel/ 
• https://aircommand.com/pages/gyroplane-faq 
• https://www.yumping.com/en/adventure-sports-news/ulm-pendulum-autogire-or-multiaxe-which-one-to-choose--c1649 
• https://www.autogyronewyork.com/mto-sport 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbhXEtsdalo 
• https://www.cierva.aero/new-cavalon 
• https://avpay.aero/aircraft-for-sale/model/magni-gyro-m22-voyager/ 
• https://www.auto-gyro.com/cavalon/ 
• https://www.airborne.com.au/pages/gyroplanes_m24.php 
• https://autogyrousa.com/models/mtosport-classic/ 
• https://www.auto-gyro.com/cavalon-pro/ 
• https://www.airborne.com.au/pages/gyroplanes_m24-plus_specs.php 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoGyro_MT-03 
• http://www.flying-directory.com/0910/images/wdla0910-gyro-pages-examp-e.pdf 

Entertaining a Geriatric Toddler

 

UFC Freedom 250

Kiting in a Gyrocopter

 

Safety record of gyrocopters in comparison to other small aircraft

2:49 PM

Searched the web

Good material to work with. Let me synthesize this into a clear picture.

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Gyrocopter Safety: The Honest Picture

The gyroplane safety question is genuinely nuanced — the aircraft has both a structural advantage and a significant track record problem, depending on how you slice the data.

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The Structural Case For Gyros

A gyroplane cannot stall. Because rotor rotation is largely independent of airspeed and angle of attack, if you fly slower than the minimum level-flight speed, the aircraft simply descends without any abrupt break and with no loss of rotor control. And since you cannot stall a gyro, it cannot spin either. Kitplanes

This matters because stall/spin is the single biggest killer in fixed-wing general aviation, accounting for a large fraction of fatal accidents. On paper, gyros should be dramatically safer. About a third of fixed-wing experimental amateur-built (EAB) accidents begin with power failure, versus only about 12% of gyro accidents — which makes sense because a gyro is always operating in autorotation. Loss of engine power simply means a gentle descent, and the pilot really has to work at it to cause serious injury. Pilots of America

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The Fatal Accident Rate Problem

Despite those aerodynamic advantages, the overall safety record has historically been poor — particularly on the metric that matters most: what happens when something does go wrong.

The NTSB lists 384 gyroplane accidents since 1983, of which 141 were fatal — roughly 36.5% of all accidents. By comparison, only about 18% of noncommercial fixed-wing airplane accidents are fatal. In other words, if you have an accident in a gyroplane, you are roughly twice as unlikely to walk away. AOPA

The caveat is that the FAA doesn't separate gyroplanes from helicopters in its annual survey of general aviation operators, making a true flight-hour accident rate comparison essentially impossible to calculate. AOPA

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Experience Is the Critical Variable

The research literature is fairly clear on what drives gyroplane accidents. A peer-reviewed epidemiological study of 223 NTSB gyroplane accidents from 1985–2005 found a stark effect of pilot experience: crashes involving pilots with fewer than 40 flight hours in the same make/model were five times more likely to involve loss of control, twice as likely to destroy the aircraft, and four times more likely to involve fatalities compared to more experienced pilots. PubMed

This maps onto a known pattern: while a gyro is immune to stalls and spins, there are aspects of stability and control related to the rotor system that pose hazards just as potentially dangerous — and perhaps even more so — than stalls and spins in fixed-wing aircraft. These include rotor unloading (the "0-g" problem), power-pushover, and blade flap — hazards that are not intuitive for fixed-wing pilots transitioning to gyros. Kitplanes

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Generation Matters: Old vs. Modern Designs

A significant confound in the historical data is design era. A large portion of the worst accident records involve older or poorly-designed homebuilts — particularly high-thrust-line designs like the RAF2000, which were found to be aerodynamically unstable. A more recent analysis restricted to what it defined as modern gyroplanes found only six fatal accidents, putting that cohort's safety record statistically on par with airplanes in NTSB records. Pilots of America

The community itself acknowledges this unevenly: even experienced gyroplane instructors who work daily on improving safety find it difficult to identify a common thread across recent accidents, with eleven NTSB-reported accidents in one recent year covering a wide range of causes and pilot profiles. Rotary Wing Forum

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How Gyros Compare to Other Categories

For general aviation context: FY2024 saw the lowest GA fatal accident rate since the FAA began tracking it in 2009, at an estimated 0.68 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours across all general aviation, with particular improvement among experimental/amateur-built aircraft and helicopters. Federal Aviation Administration

Gyros sit in an awkward statistical category — lumped with helicopters for FAA purposes, predominantly flown as experimental homebuilts, and a small enough fleet that the numbers are statistically fragile. The rough consensus from people who have done the most careful analysis:

• Fleet accident rate (accidents per registered aircraft): roughly comparable to experimental amateur-built fixed-wing
• Fatal fraction of accidents: historically about double that of fixed-wing GA — the specific hazard modes (rotor unloading, etc.) tend to be less survivable
• Modern certified/factory gyros: meaningfully better than the historical EAB average
• Engine-out survivability: likely better than fixed-wing, which is genuinely one of their strongest selling points

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Bottom Line

The gyroplane's reputation as dangerous is largely an artifact of early designs, inadequate type-specific training, and the steep consequences of rotor-specific hazards that catch pilots off guard. A well-designed modern machine flown by a properly trained pilot accumulates a reasonable record — but the transition learning curve is steep and the failure modes are less forgiving than a stall in a Cessna. The worst thing you can do in a gyro is bring fixed-wing instincts and not enough type-specific hours.