Some flying machines have been built which use the Magnus effect to create lift with a rotating cylinder at the front of a wing, allowing flight at lower horizontal speeds.
An early attempt to use the Magnus effect for a heavier-than-air aircraft was made in 1910 by a US member of Congress, Butler Ames of Massachusetts.
A later example was the Plymouth A-A-2004 in the early 1930s, built by three inventors in New York state.
French designer Jean de Chappedelaine developed his Aérogyre at much the same time. A prototype, based on a modified Caudron C.270 Luciole, was flown in 1934 with the wing rotor stationary. It crashed on its next flight, but whether the wing was rotating during that flight is unknown.