The Magni M-16 Tandem Trainer is an Italian sport autogyro, seating two in tandem, designed and produced by Magni Gyro srl of Besnate. It and the M-22 Voyager, a touring variant with baggage space and increased endurance, remain in production in 2010 with over 150 sold.
Magni Gyro currently (2010) produces five sport autogyro models, all with similar pod and low boom, pusher engine layouts. They differ chiefly in the accommodation: both the M-16 and the newer, closely similar M-22 Voyager have open cockpits and tandem seats.
An 85 kW (114 hp) Rotax 914UL flat four engine is mounted high and uncowled behind the pod, driving a 3-bladed pusher propeller. Below it the slender flat-sided boom carries the fibreglass empennage, which consists of a swept horizontal stabilizer with end-plate fins and a larger, central, fin and rudder. The 2-bladed rotor, mounted on a mast above the pod, is of composite construction. The open cockpits are fitted with dual controls. The M-16 has a tricycle undercarriage with the faired mainwheels on spring cantilever legs. The steerable nosewheel is unfaired.
The newer M-22 is optimised for touring with the inclusion of a pair of long side pods into the lower fuselage. These have their own access doors and together provide 150 L (5.3 cu ft) of baggage space. The M-22 is flown only from the front seat.
By mid-2010 there were 114 M-16s and 44 M-22s on European (Russia excluded) civil aviation registers. At least 6 have appeared on the registers of South Africa and the US.
Most have been used as sports and recreational aircraft but some have been employed in agricultural spraying and survey work over nature reserves, traffic observation, fire prevention and photographic mapping.
In 2015, an M-16 was used for a record attempt in USA.[1] [2]
In May 2016 American pilot Paul Salmon flew an M-22 to set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale distance record for gyroplanes in the 500to class of 7700NaN0 in 10 hours and 37 minutes, during a nonstop flight from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Longview, Texas, United States.[3]
In 2019 UK pilot James Ketchell flew an M-16C around the world, in 122 stages over 175 days.[4]
Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2010/11 except where specified.