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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0628.PDF
500 FLIGHT MAY 6TH, 1948 A Two-seater Helicopter with "Sgorts Car" Characteristics hs ')Illustrated by "Flight" Photographs / 1 \REMENDOUS interest was aroused by the tour of I various European countries organized by Irvin- -*- Bell Helicopter Sales, Ltd., some time ago to demonstrate the Irvin-Bell Model 47B two-seater helicopter. It will be recollected that this company holds the sales and distribution rights from the parent firm, the Bell Aircraft Corporation, of Buffalo, New York. Two features of this helicopter which contributed much to the favourable impression created everywhere in Belgium, Holland, Swit- zerland and France during the tour were the special stabilizing bar which is a patented feature of the 47B, and which endows the machine with a good deal more stability than is usually found in single-rotor helicopters ; and the '' liveli- ness '' of this little two-seater in manoeuvres. A flight in the 47B somehow reminds one of the joys of driving a high- performance sports car. One would expect from a single two-bladed rotor a certain amount of "roughness," but the rubber mounting of the engine and its transmission seems to have effectively insu- lated the occupants from any vibrations which may actually be present. The two-bladed rotor is, of course, a great con- venience when it comes to hous- ing the machine, as there is no "Jimmy " YOLK 11 m the starboard seat of the 47B. The collective and cyclic pitch control levers for the occupant of the port seat can be seen in the foreground. need to fold the blades, which are merely secured in the fore-and-aft direction, so that the overall width of the machine is reduced to that of the wheel track and stabilizer bar. During take-off and when hovering, the little cabin is somewhat noisy, but at cruising power the noise level is quite reasonably low. We are, of course, referring to the passenger type. There is an open-cockpit type used for crop dusting and similar work, which is presumably not so quiet, but of that type we have no personal experience, and in any case noise would be of secondary importance for such work. When we flew in the 47B at Hanworth, with " Jimmy" • Youeil at the controls, it was a windy day, with fairly violent gusts. In spite of this, however, all the usual helicopter man- oeuvres were performed, with the single exception of a 360-degree turn over a fixed point. In a high wind that is, apparently, impossible owing to the fact that at one stage of the evolution the pilot "runs out of control." Most impressive were the simu- lated '' landings '' in autorota- tive flight. The engine was throttled right back and the machine brought down in gliding flight until about 15ft from the ground, when the engine was opened up, the collective pitch increased and the machine brought in a smart "flare" to hover with the wheels a few inches above the grass. Quite tight S-turns in fairly steep
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