Juan de la Cierva (21 September 1895 -- 9 December 1936) born in Murcia, Spain to a wealthy family, was a Spanish civil engineer and pilot. His most famous accomplishment was the invention in 1919 of the Autogiro, a type of aircraft that later came to be called an autogyro.

Juan de la Cierva started building aircraft as early as 1912, and in 1919 he started to consider the use of windmills or rotors as a means of sustaining lift at low speed, and possibly eliminating the risk of stalling altogether. Ironically, he was later killed in an airline accident attributed to a stall.