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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0096.PDF
94 FLIGHT THE RISE of the HELICOPTER i Progress in Britain, and the Autogirds Share By REGINALD BRIE, A.F.R.Ae.S., A.F.I.Ae S. THE frequency with which some unusual or hitherto impossible task is being accomplished by the helicopter is indicative of a rapidly growing and more general awareness of its unlimited potentialities as a means of trans port. It has taken a long time to reach the adolescent stage, for it is twenty-nine years since its forerunner, the Autogiro, made its first flight in Spain. Theoretically there was nothing new in the idea of rotating wings, but on January 9th, 1923, Juan de la Cierva was the first to establish the feasibility of a new principle in aerodynamics and to produce something that really worked. Following Cierva's arrival in this country in 1925, and during the years following up to 1939, Great Britain gained a world-wide lead in rotary-wing research and development. Here it was that research flourished, and the real foundations in technical and engineering know-how which support today's achievements were truly laid. Now, largely due to the war in Korea, the present centre of activity is in America. There, backed by considerable financial support from Government funds, the production of helicopters is a priority undertaking. The still small but firmly established and rapidly growing industry, with a backlog of orders worth over £100 million, is hard pushed to meet the demands made on its still-too-limited capacity. Dwarfed as it is today by comparison with current American effort and output, the British helicopter industry nevertheless has its roots, and the object of this outline is to trace its birth and growth and to indicate some of the personalities associated with it. It was on October nth, 1925, that the first Cierva Autogiro to be flown in this country was officially demonstrated at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. A week earlier it had arrived there from Spain by surface means and during the next few days Capt. Frank Courtney had familiarized himself with its handling by a few short flights. The invitation to Cierva to demonstrate his novel aircraft here had been extended by the Air Ministry, the sponsorship of the tests and costs being the respon sibility of the then Director of Scientific Research, Mr. H. E. Wimperis. Odd-looking as Cierva's creation appeared, its only radical departure from conventional aircraft standards lay in the shedding of the normal biplane wings and the substitution of a pylon- mounted, semi-articulated, wire-braced, four-bladed-rotor system; even the ailerons were retained, on outrigger spars. The rest of the aircraft consisted of a standard Avro fuselage and under carriage, with a Le Rhone 100 h.p. rotary engine and airscrew. Whilst somewhat laborious, the method of starting the rotor by means of a rope and manpower was simplicity itself. By this means it was possible to obtain 60 r.p.m., the work-up to the pre-flight 120 r.p.m. then being obtained by taxying. For this first official demonstration to the chief technical experts of the Air Ministry the weather was kind, all went well, and a wide Press interest resulted in some quite illuminating accounts. One correspondent wrote: "The sensations of vertical descent in a helicopter were detailed to me today by Mr. F. T. Courtney, hero of yesterday's remarkable flight at Farnborough with the de la Cierva machine. In his 1,000 feet of descent Mr. Courtney had feelings of heading for a crash. But none came. The machine landed gently enough and pulled up in a few yards." An unforeseen outcome was the unwitting part which the Auto- IN the 1930s the name of "Reggie" Brie was almost synonymous with the word "Autogiro." Early in the war W/C. Brie formed an Autogiro squadron for radar-calibration duties in Fighter Command, and later he did much valuable experimental work with rotating-winged aircraft for the Admiralty and M.o.S., in the course of which he executed pioneer landings and take-offs on and from shipboard platforms. After the war he was with the Fairey helicopter department, and in 1947 he went to America to investigate helicoper progress for the M.C.A.; then he became the first member of B.E.A.'s helicopter experimental unit, of which he has been in charge ever since. The article is illustrated with "Flight" photographs. giro played in bringing to an end the Air Ministry's offer of £50,000 in prizes for a helicopter capable of meeting certain performance conditions. Louis Brennan, who was developing a true helicopter, was the only active competitor, and at this time his apparatus, in finished form but incapable of free flight, was housed in one of the R.A.E. hangars. As the Cierva machine could not hover it obviously stood no chance of winning a handsome prize; but it certainly made it appear that the solution—which in fact was to take another 14 years to achieve—was just around the corner. Shortly afterwards, the prize offer was withdrawn. A week later Sir Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of State for Air, with Air Chief-Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard (Chief of the Air Staff), A.V-M. Sir Geoffrey Salmond (Air Member for Supply and Research) and A.V-M. Sir Sefton Brancker (Director of Civil Aviation), were among the many scientists and aircraft designers who watched a further convincing demonstration by Courtney at Farnborough. On October 23rd of that year Cierva presented a paper before members of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Such was the interest already aroused that the lecture room of the Royal Society of Arts proved too small to hold all those who had gathered to hear the inventor's account of his new system of flight. Cierva's knowledge of the English language being limited, the paper was read by Sir Sefton Brancker, who, in his introductory remarks as chairman, referred to the invention as "one of vast significance in aero nautical development" and "the greatest and most important step in aeronautical progress since the Wright Brothers flew their first aeroplane." Events now began to move quickly, for on November 9th Sir Samuel Hoare stated that he had decided to have four or five different types of the Autogiro built in England without delay, for further experiments by the Royal Air Force. Meanwhile, and having been assured of adequate financial support, Cierva dis posed of the world rights in his invention to a small British group headed by Mr. James G. Weir and Mr. Hugh Kindersley; and so the Cierva Autogiro Company, Ltd., was born. By January 1926 construction work was already in progress at the A. V. Roe factory at Hamble on two aircraft with 130 h.p. Clerget engines and two powered with the 180 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley Lynx. During June, the first British-built Autogiro took to the air and in July it was demonstrated by Frank Courtney at the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon. Following the loss of a rotor blade during an experimental flight at low altitude in February 1927, when Courtney escaped with a severe shaking, Cierva conceived the fully articulated rotor system, which incorporated a vertical hinge at each blade-root attachment to the hub, thus relieving bending stresses in the plane of rotation. Cierva was now a qualified pilot at the Hampshire Aeroplane The first C/ervo Autogiro in England; rotor-starting by rope (1925). Cierva C.19 Mk IV Autogiro; mechanical rotor-starter fitted (1931).
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