FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0122.PDF
78 FLIGHT, 18 January 1951 THE HELICOPTER PART III. Present and Future Uses of Rotati$g-wing Aircraft : Trends in Design By Capt. R. N. LIPTROT, C.B.E., B.A. THE value of the helicopter rests almost wholly on itscharacteristic ability to take off vertically and to flyunder full control at low forward speeds even down to hovering. To be a commercial success as a transport vehicle, of course, and to be able to take its place in civil aviation as a machine complementary to fixed-wing air- craft, it must have a suitably high cruising speed. Because of its characteristics at and near zero forward speed it can fulfil duties which are not possible with conventional air- craft, and a major corollary of vertical take-off is the elimination of the need for airports with their specially constructed and expensive runways. Even though the helicopter is as yet in a relatively early stage of develop- ment, and the biggest type in production and available to operators is only a three/four-seater, it is already fulfilling a wide variety of roles. Some of these are discussed below. The first concerns main airports catering for the large inter-continental fixed-wing aircraft. In spite of grandiose schemes for elevated airports over cities, such airports will in all probability always have to be situated outside urban districts. The helicopter, however, only requires a rela- tively small area, comparable with its own dimensions, for take-off and alighting, and so it can penetrate into the heart of built-up areas, thus cutting out the terminal losses due to tedious journeys between the airports and the towns which they serve. Taking average terminal losses, one can show that, even when cruising at only 100 m.pJi., as com- pared with a fixed-wing aircraft cruising at 300 m.p.h., the helicopter can show a shorter block-to-block time over stages up to something like 250 to 300 miles. Great Britain is too small a country to take full advantage of the modern high-speed aircraft for internal services, and yet there are several areas where surface transport is slow and an alternative is badly needed. This is particularly true of the Midlands in regard to transport between eastern and western areas. The Minister of Civil Aviation recently indicated official policy toward the helicopter when he said that, while fixed-wing aircraft would doubtless continue to offer com- petitive service over some of the longer routes, such as London-Glasgow and London-Belfast, we needed a form of transport which could operate economically over short dis- tances, and for this the helicopter was ideal. He indicated that it can confidently be expected that the helicopter will fill the gap in our transport system, since we have so many centres of population within short distances of one another. Such an extension must, of course, await the availability of suitable helicopters, but a beginning has already been made on the Cardiff-Liverpool service run by British Euro- pean Airways, and being used to develop operating tech- niques. The experience already gained from this and other experimental helicopter operations indicates that when we take account of the savings in capital cost and maintenance of landing areas of the necessary traffic-control system, and such services as navigational aids, the overall economics of the helicopter are such as to promise a satisfactory commer- cial future for it. Quite apart from airline operations there should be a lucrative business for charter operators in taxi services from the main airports to nearby town centres. The helicopter's second role concerns mail shuttle ser- vices from General Post Offices to main airports, and also mail pick-up and delivery to remote communities and in areas where surface transport is slow. The B.E.A. Helicopter Experimental Unit has already operated such a service in East Anglia, flying a route between Norwich and Peter- borough with thirteen stops at towns averaging about 20 miles apart. This service was first operated by day but, after some preliminary development of blind-flying tech- nique and lighting aids, a night schedule was flown between Peterborough and Downham Market; finally, in late 1949 An impression of the Sikorsky S.55, shortly to be built by West/onds. A twin-engined version, primarily civil, may follow. Stability demonstration with a Hiller 360. Like the Sikorsky S.5I and Bell 47, the type is in steady production in America. Kellett XR-10, an American design with siae-py-siae mtermeshing rotors. It has an all-up weight of about 11,000 Ib.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
