How the Gyro-X Balances

How the Gyro-X stays upright, in our own diagrams: the 1967 layout, the patent’s three axes, precession, the control loop, the drivetrain, the cockpit, original vs new gyroscope, an energy calculation, a start-up sequence card and a plain-English guide to Thomas Summers’s US patent 3,410,357, finishing with a match-the-part test.

What’s inside:

- The Gyro-X at a glance

- Where everything sits

- The three axes

- Precession: turn it one way, lean the other way

- The control loop

- The drivetrain, 1967

- Starting the Gyro-X

- Inside the cockpit

- Original and new gyroscope

- How much energy is in the flywheel?

- US patent 3,410,357 in plain English

- Reading a 1960s patent

- Match the part to its job

- Credits, licence & sources

Pages: 15 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named sources from the Lane Motor Museum, Octane (2026), WIRED (2017), Hagerty (2019), Agency Impianti and US patent 3,410,357 (checked 9 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Things that can change, such as museum details and the car’s current speed and software version, are printed with that date. Where sources give different figures, each is shown with its source.

Photos are from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licences (CC BY-SA 4.0), credited on the credits page; all drawings, charts and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own. Technical drawings are simplified and not to scale. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Lane Motor Museum, Agency Impianti, Ford Motor Company, Octane, WIRED, Hagerty or any photographer or publisher named here. The Gyro-X was built by Gyro Transport Systems of Ridgecrest, California, not by Ford; Ford’s own gyro concept was the 1961 Gyron. Names are used only to identify the vehicles, people and organisations discussed.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind gyro-x.motoring.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.