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Introduction
Straight up and down
No margin of error
Attention to detail

An aviation enthusiast had rescued gyroplane 'VK' from a garden in Manchester and kept it in a nearby garage, where the Salvage Squad first encounter it. VK, named after the first two letters of its registration, was built in 1970. It attended nearly 200 air shows in the 1970s and '80s as part of the British Airways display team, but its last flight was 13 years ago.
The Squad's task is to rebuild the gyroplane and have it flying again in time for the Duxford Air Display in Cambridgeshire. They have just two weeks to complete the task.

The gyroplane was invented in the early 1920s by Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish mathematician who originally invented the free-spinning rotors as a kind of parachute for a conventional aeroplane, which would enable it to land almost vertically if anything went wrong. Though he never considered powering his rotors, his work on the gyroplane paved the way for the helicopter.
The early gyros played a vital role in World War II when they were used for calibrating the radar that warned of the approach of German planes. The most famous gyro, though, is Little Nelly, flown by Wing Commander Ken Wallis in the Bond film, You Only Live Twice.

As the Squad soon discover, while gyroplanes look simple, they have to be maintained to very high standards. If the Squad make a single mistake during the restoration, VK could drop out of the sky.
Like all modern gyroplanes, VK consists of a simple go-kart-like frame with the other parts bolted on to it.
It has two rotor blades which provide lift, but they are not powered by the 2-litre Volkswagen engine. Instead they spin by themselves and reach speeds of up to 400 revolutions per minute. The engine is there to power the propellor which drives the gyroplane forward, just like an ordinary plane.

Salvage Squad's Jerry Thurston takes on the tough challenge of assembling VK's complex rotor head. This is the bearing right in the middle between the two blades, and is the most important part of the rotors. Each rotor must hinge a little where it joins the rotor head. This is different from helicopters, which do not have tilting rotor heads, but have blades that move individually to change pitch. The gyro, though, is a simpler machine on which the whole rotor head tilts.
In flight, VK's rotors are not powered, but to start them turning they have to be temporarily connected to the engine via a small cog. Once they are spinning fast enough, the engine is disconnected, leaving them to spin freely on their own. The lever that connects the engine to the rotors causes Jerry some real headaches.
Jerry is used to fiddly work on his classic cars, but the rotor head is a real challenge. He has to fit over 40 component parts (made of aircraft-grade aluminium and steel) into a space smaller than a biscuit tin.
When it's time for the test flight, everything depends on Jerry's engineering work. The rest of the Squad have never seen him concentrate so hard or keep so quiet as when he is studying the gyro's blueprints.