As part of the support to South African aircraft manufacturing industry the ARU developed a single-seat autogyro as a research vehicle. Design of the autogyro was started in 1965 and construction followed in April 1967, by 1972 the autogyro, registered ZS-UGL, was ready for tethered tests mounted on a lorry-platform, it made its first free flight on 30 November 1972 at Swartkop Air Force Base. Following the test flights the autogyro was modified.
The autogyro had a box-like fuselage structure made from light-alloy and was fitted with twin fins and rudders with a fixed incidence tail-plane mounted between them. It was fitted with a two-bladed teetering rotor, the rotor could be spun up using a shaft drive through a clutch from the engine. The engine located at the rear was a 1800NaN0 Continental O-360-A air-cooled engine driving a two-bladed constant-speed pusher propeller. The crew sat side by side in the enclosed fuselage with dual controls, entrance is through a forward-opening glazed door on each side. The landing gear was a fixed tricycle type with a self-centering and steerable nosewheel.