A gyrocopter sits on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol with members of the U.S. Capitol Police nearby. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A gyrocopter sits on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol with members of the U.S. Capitol Police nearby. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In case you somehow missed it, a 61-year-old mailman landed on the U.S. Capitol’s lawn yesterday in a gyrocopter to deliver a message about campaign finance reform to Congress. In a city with a long history of people trying to make their point in dramatic/illegal fashion, this one still managed to surprise. The pilot, Doug Hughes, is due in court today to face federal charges in the incident.

After all the excitement, here are some things we learned.

Gyrocopters are a thing.

The Washington Post columnist John Kelly tweeted yesterday, “The gyrocopter is known universally as the preferred mode of transportation for cranks, weirdos and nutjobs.” The publication’s graphics department handily made a guide for understanding the thing, which is a cross between a helicopter and an airplane that is often built from a kit. Evidently, they usually cost about $10,000 and weigh up to 254 pounds.

The Tampa Bay Times probably should have said something about this whole thing.

It turns out that Hughes notified his hometown newspaper to his plans, and the Tampa Bay Times ran with it without alerting the authorities. Reporter Ben Montgomery even live tweeted it.

But a number of media ethicists said the paper had a responsibility to say something. “A news organization should be extremely knowledgeable of the potential harm” a stunt like this could cause,” Edward Wasserman, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, told the Post. “I really question their judgment. There is no end of the ways this could have gone wrong.”

Still, there was hardly consensus among journalists that the paper was in the wrong.

You really can fly under the radar in D.C.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Hughes was able to make it to the lawn after he “apparently literally flew in under the radar,” AP reported. He told defended the current protocols and told reporters: “We are a democracy. We don’t have fences around our airspace, so we’ve got to find the right balance between living in a free and open society and security and the protection of federal buildings.”

And this is how long it takes for officers to swarm a gyrocopter.

And, finally, this wasn’t the first time an aircraft landed at the Capitol.

Reader Jim Hayes alerts us to Lawrence Sperry’s 1922 flight. He arrived in dramatic fashion to show off the plane, a “real flivver,” and demand the Army speed up its contract payments.

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