Gyrocopters: to be or not to be?

[angevin@juno.com (Joseph P Benedetto)]

>   Please reconsider the AirScout.  Maybe make some changes to it to
suit >you idea of how it should look like.  But every time I get one in a
game, it
>always helps me out.  Most recently, I was able to cross half of Ohio,
all of
>Indiana, and all of Illinios with AirScout assistance.  There are a lot
of
>streams and rivers that don't all have bridges across them anymore (150+
>years after OOOOPS!), and the AirScout was able to range ahead and
locate
>crossing points for out vehicles (some couldn't swim).  That 120kph
cruise
>speed (if this is wrong, sorry, the book isn't in from of me) can't be
beat.

I agree.  And as to the argument--

Is the gyrocopter a valid aircraft?  Maybe not.  But then again, in WWII
the German U-Boats needed to see farther, and--lacking tall masts with
crow's nests--resorted to a kind of helicopter kite: the rotor blades
caught the moving air and lifted the kite--and one brave soul--up high
above the U-boat's deck, where he could get a much longer line-of-sight
to the horizon to find enemy ships.  Sure it was a crappy design and
maybe it wasn't a "real" aircraft, BUT IT DID THE JOB.

As to the Airscout being "map-portable", yeah, I doubt that this is
possible.  But think about it: dissemble some of the longer parts and it
fits into a trailer which can be towed behind most MPV's, something few
other aircraft mentioned in this thread could do.  AND consider making a
cache extra large and sticking a dissembled Airscout in it; again, you
can't do that with most of the other "real" aircraft mentioned before.  

And Yes, it is not much of an aircraft--but is small, lightweight, and
capable.  It makes a very good reconnaissance aircraft (sorry,
*vehicle*); it can get in and out of tiny clearings; it can be carried in
a trailer or stowed in a BIG cache; within the limits of what it can and
cannot do, it is a decent little air-vehicle.  I let one of my teams have
some and it changed the game entirely; *I* think it is a valid design and
that it has a place within the structure of the game.

Joe
angevin@juno.com