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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1768.PDF
766 FLIGHT Our American Correspondent Reports . . . SOME of the biggest jumps in aviation technical develop ment have been made under the pressure of war. Korea is proving no exception; but, because of the nature of the ground fighting there, it is the helicopter that is reaping a lot of the benefit this time. There are today eight major American companies engaged in the development of rotating-wing aircraft—plus a number of smaller firms who have not yet made the big league but who may do so at any moment. One of the most interesting of these latter is the Gyrodyne Company of America, who are now flying their Model 2C. This is a 5,400 lb aircraft with two co-axially mounted twin- blade rotors, powered by a Pratt and Whitney Wasp Junior. The aircraft is designed to carry a pilot and six passengers, and the company is hoping for C.A.A. certification this summer. The Big Eight have between them some 25 to 30 specifications, ranging from the Piasecki XH-16, a 42-seater with two Pratt and Whitney 1,650 h.p. engines down to the single-seater ramjet McDonnell XH-20. They have others, of course, but the veil of secrecy hangs heavily over the industry, and the list of types below, drawn up by the Helicopter Council of America, is all that can be published at the moment. Maker's Type BELL:— 47 47 B 47 D 47 D-1 47 D-1 48 61 ... DOMAN:— LZ-4 LZ-5 HILLER:— UH12 UH12A ... HUGHES:— (Restricted) KAMAN:— K-Z4Q K-3 MCDONNELL:— 38 79 PIASECKI:— — — *— . — — — SIKORSKY:— S-51 S-52-2 S-55 S-56 (restricted) Seats 2 2 2 3 3 10 3 8 2-6 3 3 — 3 4 1 1-2 10 10 6 6 6 16 16 22 42 4 3-4 10-12 — Engine(s) Franklin ... Franklin ... Franklin ... Franklin Franklin P. and W. P. and W. Lycoming Lycoming Franklin ... Franklin — Lycoming Continental McDonnell ramjet McDonnell ramjet P. and W. P. and W. Continental Continental Continental Wright Wright Wright 2 P. and W. P. and W. Franklin P. and W. — h.p. 178 178 200 200 200 600 1,900 400 400 178 200 — 24S 525 — 600 600 525 560 560 1,150 1,150 1,425 1,650* •450 245 600 USAF YH-13 H-13B H-13C H-13D H-13E YH-12 — — — — XH-17 — — XH-20 — — — — __ YH-21 H-21A H-21B XH-16 H-5 H-19 USA YH-13 H-13B H-13C H-13D H-13E — — — H-23A H-23B — — _ — — — — H-25A _ H-21B YH-18 H-19 USCG HTL-1 HTL-2 HTL-3 HTL-4 HTL-5 — — — — — — M — HRP-1 _ — — — — H03S H05S H04S USMC HTL-1 HTL-2 HTL-3 HTL-4 HTL-5 — HTK-1 HOK-1 HRP-1 HRP-2 — _ _„ — H03S H05S HRS HR2S USN HTL-1 HTL-2 HTL-3 HTL-4 HTL-5 — XHSL —, —. HTE-1 HTE-2 — HTK-1 HOK-1 — HRP-1 HRP-2 HUP-1 HUP-2 —* — _w H03S H04S *Each engine As will be seen, the Hughes twin-rotor XH-17 [illustrated on page 707 of Flight for June 13th—ED.] is the most strictly "classified" machine, i.e., information about it is severely restricted. It is powered by two General Electric turbojets and is known to be a big and powerful aircraft. It was severely damaged during its initial tie-down tests, but is working again now. As for the types that are in use for civil work, the Bell 47, and Sikorsky S.51 and S.52 lead the field. A con siderable amount of flying is being done with these machines all over the States in the way of police patrol, survey work, pipeline inspection, crop-spraying and the like. Two com mercial operators have actual mail routes. Los Angeles Air ways were the first to start, with a mail service around that area, and it has been sufficiently successful for them to be able to get a limited passenger-certificate. They now have two passenger Sikorsky S.55S on order. A company with similar aims, Helicopter Air Service of Chicago, have six Bell aircraft and operate mail routes between the main post-office in that city and the airport and outlying districts. In New York another new company, Metropolitan Air Commuting, have just been granted a C.A.A. certificate, but have not yet started any operations. In New England, Wiggins Airways (who at one time favoured the de HaviUand Dove) are toying with the idea of a helicopter passenger service through out the North-Eastern States. "THE Civil Aeronautics Administration look with qualified favour, on all this activity, but wisely feel that, until there is a reliable twin-engined helicopter available, it is not safe to carry passengers over crowded cities or built-up areas. In fact, even for the all-mail services they are quite strict in controlling the routes so that they are over open or semi-open country. There is always the final hop to the Post Office, of course; but even this has to be flown along a route where engine failure would give a good chance of a forced landing without danger to those on the ground. Apart from such pre cautions, the C.A.A. have been doing their best to keep ser vices as free from red tape as possible, working out the opera tional and safety requirements as they went along. Once the manufacturers here are free of military commit ments, civil helicopter operations will make great strides. In the long-term view there is full agreement with those in England who believe that for journeys up to 200 miles or so the helicopter is the answer—particularly if noise and danger problems tend to force the big airports away from city centres and out into the country. Moreover, a survey has shown that more than 90 per cent of all railroad, bus and car traffic is for 100 miles or less, and this traffic could well be handled by helicopter routes. • • • TNCIDENTALLY, the rotating-wing boys here seem to have been just as guilty as their fixed- wing confreres in luring away British technicians. One keeps on hearing of well-known helicopter engineers who have just, or are just about to, join American companies. At a time when the needs of Britain are so urgent, and when she is engaged in a struggle with her friends for civil air supremacy, this is sad news. One only hopes that the material values here, which from a distance must appear so alluring, will live up to their advertised claims and not, on closer inspection, lack lustre. These things aren't always what they seem. The ice box and the washing machine and full-to-bursting grocery store may help to create creature comforts, but they can be poor substitutes for older and more valuable heritages. Furthermore, if there is a recession in the United States—and this may well happen if there is a let-up in the rearmament programme—the laws of economic survival will deal harshly with late-comers. • • • TJARD on the heels of the U.S. Air Force pub-x licity about their new global bombers, the B-60 and B-52, comes news of a report known as Project Vista. Mr. Hanson Baldwin, military correspondent of the New York Times, writes as follows :— "A major effort to increase the nation's tactical air strength and fundamental revisions in the Air Force system of supporting ground troops are urged in the final report of Project Vista, now under study in Washington. "Project Vista, an operational analysis of the application of fire power to the ground battlefield, was made for the armed services by the California Institute of Technology, and represents one of the most thorough scientific approaches to the problem yet made. "According to one informant, it scores what it terms the 'imbalance' in United States military strength today as due to past adherence to the one-weapon strategic concept—the atomic bomb carried by long-range bombers—and it advocates the maximum possible development of tactical atomic weapons. The
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