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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1383.PDF
FLIGHT Helicopters show their true value in places where ground transport is difficult; lumber- ing areas are an example. The aircraft is a Hitkr 12E Some 12,000 Helicopters have now been Built: Rotating Wings in Peace and War By JOHN W. R. TAYLOR THE TOY OF all the different forms of aircraft flying today, thehelicopter comes nearest to fulfilling the hopes and dreamsof the pioneers. It alone possesses the freedom to fly any- where; and the familiar gibe that its rotor is unnatural would bevalid only if aeroplanes flapped their wings and motor cars walked on legs. Even the work it has done in its young life makes sense, beingdirected more at improving mankind's lot in this world than in carrying weapons to speed his arrival in the next. Unfortunately,little of this work is of the glamorous kind, and the average news- paper reader is more used to seeing pictures of young ladies inswim-suits dangling from trapezes under helicopters than of the same aircraft saving from the ravages of blight the potatoes he eats. For this reason the helicopter is still regarded generally as a toyor vehicle for stunts rather than as a serious, well-proven and thoroughly practical aircraft; and it is not until one begins delvingdeeply into the records of its manufacturers and operators that the magnitude of its achievements to date becomes apparent. Going back for a moment to the very earliest days of flying, it isoften forgotten that the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft which we know to have flown successfully was the helicoptermodel demonstrated by Launoy and Bienvenu before the French Academe des Sciences in 1784. News of this model helped topersuade Sir George Cayley to take an interest in aviation. His pioneering in turn paved the way for the first successful full-scalegliders and powered aircraft of Lilienthal and the Wright brothers. In the process rotors gave way to fixed wings and the Wrightscertainly had no time for helicopters. In a letter to Arnold Fordyce on January 15, 1906, Wilbur wrote : — "Like all novices we began with the helicopter (in childhood) but soonsaw that it had no future and dropped it. The helicopter does with great labor only what the balloon does without labor, and is no more fittedthan the balloon for rapid horizontal flight. If its engine stops it must fall with deathly violence, for it can neither float like the balloon norglide like the aeroplane. The helicopter is much easier to design than the aeroplane but it is worthless when done." c. The only part of that paragraph with which we can agree today is that the helicopter does its work "with great labor"—compara-tively speaking. For example, to carry four persons at 124 m.p.h. in a light fixed-wing aeroplane such as the Cessna 172 requires anengine of only 145 h.p. To carry four at 107 m.p.h in a helicopter like the Sycamore and provide the ability to take off and landvertically demands an engine of 500 h.p. High power is synony- mous with high initial and operating costs, and this has been themajor hindrance to rapid development of the helicopter, because its greatest potential market is obviously as a civil transport, forwhich economics are all-important. Fortunately, economy takes second place to expediency in themilitary field, and the new concept of speed and mobility that the helicopter has offered for duties such as casualty evacuation,combat-area transport and "plane-guard" rescue at sea has sub- sidized its development to the stage where it is now beginning tolook attractive commercially. Nor does the development period seem unduly long when weappreciate that it has taken a mere 20 years to advance from Sikorsky's VS-300, the first entirely practical helicopter, to the big,immensely promising Fairey Rotodyne of today. So much for the background picture. Before filling in the detailsof what the helicopter has already done in two decades, it might be worth trying to estimate how many aircraft have been involved indoing it. Precise figures are seldom possible, because a high pro- portion of the overall production has been to meet military con-tracts; but the following notes on the output to date of the major manufacturers gives some indication of the total. In general, wemust exclude prototypes; this accounts for the non-appearance of, for example, Fairey, Aerotecnica (Spain) and the Czech AircraftFactory, whose production is not yet under way. Great Britain Bristol Aircraft Ltd. With production almost completed, the numberof Sycamores built to date is 176. The Type 192 is in production. Saunders-Roe Ltd. Six Skeeters delivered to German Army, four toGerman Navy, many more to British Army. Westland Aircraft Ltd. Total production of Dragonfly, Widgeon,Whirlwind and Wessex given as approximately 500.
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