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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1583.PDF
AUGUST 3RD, 1944 Precision flying. The Bell being demonstrated inside a building. The picture is somewhat reminiscent of those published in 1938, when Fraulein Hanna Reitsch flew the Focke-Wulf F.W.61 inside the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. Saver some time during May of 1941. In America, it has been reported, several hundred successful flights have been made on Bell jet-ptopelled aircraft, and pilots have been somewhat surprised at the unfamiliar simplicity. The absence oi vibration and the relative silence of the jet engines behind the pilot combine to make the jet-propelled aircraft uncommonly comfortable to fly, and the absence of airscrew torque renders this type of aircraft comparable, from the handling point of view, with an orthodox type fitted with contra-rotating airscrews. Hitherto the same secrecy has been observed in America about the Bell-Whittle-G.E.C. combination as that applied in this country to the Gloster-Whittle machine. Our Chicago contemporary, Air Tech, in its May issue, lifts the veil to some extent by publishing what it terms " exclu sive " three-view silhouettes of the Bell. Whether these views are authentic, are "intelligent anticipation," or merely an elaboration of the machine that has been appear ing in the Bell Aircraft Corporation's advertisements (in which the entire centre, which would include the power plants, is a plain white circle with the lettering " Cen- Three-view silhouette of the Bell. Note the long nose with, presumably, guns or cannon represented by the " feelers " shown. This front elevation oi the Bell jet aircraft, from Air Tech., shows the small ground clearance made possible by the absence of airscrews. sored "), we naturally have no means of knowing. The same journal also publishes an outline front view of the Bell. We reproduce both without accepting any respon sibility for their accuracy. In the design of the new Bell helicopter stability and controllability are said to be the two main factors aimed at. In this aim the Bell does not differ from other heli copters, and as no detailed information has been released, one has few means of knowing to what extent the new machine marks an advance on previous work. It is said to incorporate a stabilising device which isolates the rotor head from the supporting structure and airframe. Pilot and passenger sit side-by-side, and the cabin is entered through car-type doors in the sides The engine is a 160 h.p. horizontally opposed Franklin, mounted aft of the cabin, with J*.S crankshaft vertical. Cyclic pitch control is used for levelling the lift on the blades, of which there are two, constructed of wood, f be rotor diameter is 33ft. In connection with the jet-propelled air craft it is significant that the General Electric Company has received a large order from the U.S. Army Air Forces for jet power plants. The company is making available some 1 600,000 sq ft. of floor space for this produc tion order, a fact which appears to indicate that tests at Wright Field have shown the Whittle-G.E.C. prime mover sufficiently far advanced for quantity production.
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