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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1840.PDF
604 FLIGHT, to November 1949 The author, looking very much at home in the Hiller 360, goes solo. Its engine is the Franklin 335 "vertical flat six" of 178 h.p. By C. Colin Cooper British Pupil at a French School Flies an American— HANDS OFF'' HELICOPTER RECENTLY I visited Paris forten days in order to learn tofly the Hiller 360 helicopter. As time was limited, it was necessary to fall in with the weather, which was not too kind and eventually necessi- tated an inordinately large number of short sessions in one of the three Hiller Helicopters that are being operated in France by Helicop-Air, Ltd., the European distributing agents for United Helicopters, Inc., the manufacturers of the Hiller in California. Helicop-Air was formed by Cdr. H. Boris, a dynamic personality who appears to work an eight-day week. The company is fortunate, also, in having Mr. Alan Bristow as chief pilot and helicopter advisor. Between them Boris and Bristow have managed during the past two months to demonstrate the aircraft in France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, execute an orange-grove-dust- ing contract in North Africa and start their pilot-training school at Cormeille, a large but little-used airfield 25 miles west of Paris. The school has aready trained a handful of pilots, mostly prospective customers or sub-agents to Helicop-Air in other European countries. The Hiller 360 has aroused considerable interest in Europe and it is thought that within another three or four months there will be at least ten of them on the Continent. My first lesson was with Alan Bristow. We went up for half an hour, during which I was to familiarize myself with the different '' feel'' of the over- head cyclic control stick. Most people know that a helicopter has three controls—the cyclic control stick, which controls directional flight; the collective-pitch lever, that controls ascent and descent; and the rudder pedals, which, by altering the pitch of the tail rotor, control the machine in the yawing sense. In the Hiller 360 the cyclic control stick hangs from over the pupils' left shoulder and, although the reaction to the movements of this stick are in the logical sense (i.e., stick for-' ward, fly forward) it takes a little while to become accustomed to one's hand following an Mr. Alan Bristow (with papers) talks to a French pupil; on the left are the Munichs, senior and junior, engineers at the school. The " paddles " of the Rotor-Matic control are visible at the top of the picture. / N the author's view, the inherent-stabilitycharacteristics conferred by the Rotor- Matic Control System used in the Hiller 360 constitute a challenge to British helicopter manufacturers. In view of the very limited facilities for helicopter tuition in this country, his article will also be of interest to prospec- tive pupils, though the question of currency restrictions must be borne in mind upward rather than a downward arc when pushing the stick forward. Another difference in the flying con- trols of this helicopter is the absence of the now conventional twist-grip throttle on the collective-pitch lever. In most present-day helicopters the throttle is automatically opened as the collective pitch is increased, because the rotor absorbs more power at greater pitch. The pilot also has a means of making small adjustments above this automatic action, by operation of the twist-grip type throttle. On the Hiller, however, there is no twist grip, and the throttle is mounted in the form of a separate lever running parallel to the collective-pitch lever handle, so that it may easily be operated by the little fingers of the left hand, with a twisting motion of the wrist. In effect it is rather like juggling with two throttles of a twin-engined aircraft, only one lever controls the carburettor and the other the collective-pitch of the rotor blades; in theory, therefore, one lever controls the engine revs and the other the rotor r.p.m. The pitch lever and throttle are so linked that increase in pitch results in an automatic opening of the throttle, but on the Hiller one is taught to fly by leading with the throttle whenever making an increase in pitch. Personally, I feel it is an asset to have complete control of your throttle at all times, especially during training, when a common
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