Interesting projects on your site! I don't know how far you'll get desigining your own 'Gyro for the project but in the post here:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/My_e...2325673/tm.htm
the author seems to have avoided a lot of common gyro problems by using a helicopter rotor head with appropriate controls. Don't know how big model helos get but using off-the-shelf parts could save you a heap of trouble.