If you have followed this blog for very long, you have already met the many family members from Switzerland that I found through my genealogical research. On my visits to Switzerland (three to date) they have all welcomed me into the family. They may be distant cousins but they have all become very dear to my heart.
One small silver lining to the pandemic is that I have been chatting regularly with some of them on Skype, and we have become closer than ever. Almost every Saturday I chat with my cousin Walter and his wife Helen. They live in Aarau, the capital of the canton of Aargau, less than twenty minutes down the road from the little town where my great grandmother was born. Walter is a medical doctor and Helen is a speech therapist at a school for handicapped children.
Walter has been telling me about his new "toy", an autogiro, also known as a gyrocopter. An autogiro looks like a small helicopter, although the mechanics of it are quite different from a helicopter. Thrust is provided by an engine-driven propeller behind the cabin, and the helicopter-like propeller on top is unpowered. It rotates freely and provides lift. It was developed before the helicopter. The first one was built and flown in 1923 by the Spaniard Juan de la Cierva.
A number of times when I have Skyped with Walter, he had just returned from a flight on his autogiro. He has taken a number of short, round-trip flights to different places in Switzerland. On a recent trip, a friend that met him at the landing field took some pictures. Walter forwarded them on to me.
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