Julian was known as a motorcycle speedway racer. He decided to design his own autogyro and on 4 November 1991 the CAA issued the Wombat a restricted Permit to Test. It was test flown at the St Merryn airfield in Cornwall. In May 1997, when Julian was 60 years old, he was killed in the crash of a different model gyroglider at the Kemble airfield.[2]
After Julian's death the Wombat design rights passed to former helicopter pilot Mark Harrisson in July 2000. Harrisson had intended to put the aircraft back into production, but in 2013 instead donated the prototype to The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, where it arrived on 9 July 2013.[2] [3] [4]
The Wombat was designed to comply with the British Amateur-built aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat semi-enclosed cockpit with a cockpit fairing and windshield, tricycle landing gear, plus a tail caster and a twin cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, single-ignition 640NaN0 Rotax 532 engine in pusher configuration.
The aircraft fuselage is made from bolted-together aluminum tubing. Its two-bladed Dragon Wings aluminium rotor has a diameter of 22.832NaN2, including a 2.532NaN2 hub bar. Rotor cyclic control is via torque-tubes. The rudder is constructed with a composite skin over a foam core. The aircraft lacks a horizontal stabilizer.[2]
The Wombat has a typical empty weight of 352lb. The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a 640NaN0 engine is 3000NaN0 and the landing roll is 30NaN0.
In April 2015 no examples were registered in the United Kingdom with the CAA. Although a total of four had been registered at one time, all have had their registrations cancelled by the CAA.[5]