Bensen B-5

B-5
Role	Recreational rotor kite
National origin	USA
Manufacturer	Bensen Aircraft for homebuilding
Designer	Igor Bensen
First flight	1953

The Bensen B-5 was a small rotor kite developed by Igor Bensen in the United States and offered and marketed for home building in 1954. Dubbed the "Gyro-Glider", it was the first of several such designs that would be sold by Bensen Aircraft Corporation over the following decades.

The B-5 was built around a cruciform frame of aluminum tube. A landing wheel was fitted to three points of this cross, and a mast was fitted above its centre to support the rotor hub. The fourth arm of the cross provided a mounting for a large, plywood fin and rudder, reminiscent of that of the Raoul Hafner's Rotachute that had shaped Bensen's thinking about rotor kite design.

The aircraft was intended to be towed behind a car, and could be built at home from easily obtained materials in about three to four weeks.

The B-5 was also the model converted to the Bensen Mid-Jet which was powered by two tip mounted ramjets for military use.

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