HISTORY OF THE AUTOGIRO/ ;e story of the Autogiro starts in Spain early
in the 20th century with a boy named Juan de la Cierva, born in 1895. Like
many boys of the time he was enthralled with flight. As a teenager in the pre-World War I period, he began experimenting with gliders. ;en, starting with
the wreck of a crashed Sommer biplane, he and some friends built his first
powered design, a pusher biplane. It flew well.