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Cierva, Juan de la

Cierva, Juan de la (hwän dā lä thyār'vä) [key], 1895–1936, Spanish aeronautical engineer, inventor of a rotary-wing aircraft called an autogiro. He flew his first autogiro in 1923 and crossed the English Channel in an improved model in 1928.

See his Wings of Tomorrow (1931).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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