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Can't Stand Traffic Jams? This Magni M-24 Orion Can Rise Above it All

Traffic jams are a pain, right? It's as if you spend more time stuck in traffic than we do spending time with our families or engaging in our hobbies. If only we lived in a world where this 2016 Mangi Gyro M24 Orion was road legal. Then you could simply rise above all the lesser plebs in their BMWs and Infinitis.
Magni Autogyro 7 photos
Photo: Danny Beger
Magni AutogyroMagni AutogyroMagni AutogyroMagni AutogyroMagni AutogyroMagni Autogyro
In the world of rotorcraft, the autogyro is like the red-headed stepchild. It is not practical enough for commercial service and is often too small for private owners to use outside of basic air transportationI. t's a major reason why the concept of autogyros was abandoned by the U.S. Air Force way back in the 1940s. But even so, the Italian Magni M-24 sport autogyro can't help but look like an appealing choice for ultralight private air service, mostly due to its striking good looks.

Magni Gyro SRL, the company that builds the M24, currently builds as many as five different variants of the autogyro formula. This particular example is the M24 Orion, the production-ready, closed-cockpit spinoff of the company's original autogyro product, the M-16 Tandem Trainer.

It comes sporting comfortable hand-stitched cloth seats, dual controls for the pilot and co-pilot, and a full suite of modern communication, navigation and avionics equipment, including but not limited to an M760 Microair dual freq monitoring radio/intercom system and twin Lightspeed Zulu 2 headsets.

Powering this little wonder is a Rotax 914 turbocharged flat-four engine jetting 114 horsepower total. Good for a respectable top speed of 121 mph (194 km/h). With so little weight to lug around, only around 535 kg (1,180 lb) at max takeoff capacity, this aircraft could legitimately out-speed some fixed-wing private piston planes. The price for it all? $113,636 Australian, or about $78,988 USD. For that kind of money, there aren't too many aircraft out there with the same potential for having fun.
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