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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0723.PDF
PLIGHT, 27 Afoy 1960 <Xert; A Sikorsky S-58 of Chicago Heli- copter Airways carries its passengers swiftly over the city's traffic jams 723 The primary role of the commercial helicopter is to operate feeder services to airports. At right a Bell 47 J con- nects with an American Airlines Conrair This picture of a ramp-equipped Boeing Vertol 107 gives a hint of future heli- copter medium freighting possibilities Igor Sikorsky and two of his colleagues rode draughtily on a rudimentary plat- form slung beneath the S-60 Skycrane. The outcome of their experiments was the 20-passenger "people pod" (below) this breath-taking stroll, and the next morning a safety rail appeared on the platform! A more elaborate result of the experi- ment was the now-familiar 20-passenger "people pod" which has been demonstrated under the S-60 (picture: lower right). Mr Sikorsky sees a big future for such pods. In his MIT lecture he said: "Comfortably-outfitted pods could be loaded with passengers and their luggage in the heart of a city and delivered by a crane-helicopter to a long-distance jet airliner, waiting at the end of a runway, where the passengers could be transferred com- fortably and quickly." He went on to visualize a 24-passenger high-speed jet airliner—perhaps even a supersonic one—waiting on a roof-top platform in a city centre. A crane-helicopter would pick it up, lift it to one or more thousand feet, meanwhile accelerating to a speed of, say, 120 m.p.h. It could launch the airliner less than a minute after it left the platform. Upon arrival at destination, the procedure would be reversed. Fantastic? That's what many "experts" said about helicopters as a whole not so long ago. Before scoffing let us take a look at the majority of the successful helicopters flying in the world today and remind ourselves how closely they follow the layout of a little prototype that was flown successfully just 20 years and eight months ago by a man named Igor Sikorsky.
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