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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0619.PDF
fL <HT, W May 1961 629 VTOL — now or never BYJOHN W. R. TAYLOR THE whole future of VTOL flight may depend on what happensin the next twelve months. After years of patient, costlydevelopment and experiment, we have in the Vertol 107and Sikorsky S-61 a pair of big commercial helicopters with operating economics that no longer look like something out ofAlice in Wonderland. A few years later is the Westland Rotodyne, which should be better still. It is not enough for the handful of established helicopter airlineslike New York Airways, Los Angeles Airways and Chicago Heli- copter Airways to order a total of fewer than 20 S-61s and 107s.If we are ever to have a network of short-haul helicopter services on a worldwide basis, some bold and expensive decisions must betaken now; and this concerns Britain most of all, for no city on earth is better placed than London as the centre for such a network. The faint-hearted will protest that there is no proof that thesenew helicopters can be operated efficiently and without vast sub- sidies. They point to other forms of VTOL aircraft such as tilt-wing and fan-lift aeroplanes, or even the Griffith proposal for a supersonic jet-lift airliner, and ask whether it might not be wiser topour all available funds into the development of these potentially better projects. Such people would never have dreamed of opening the pioneercross-Channel air services with D.H.9s and H.P.O/400s in August 1919. They would have wanted proof that the operations werefeasible, and Britain would have been left behind. Nor would they have contemplated ordering the incomparably successful H.P.42sin 1929, in case somebody produced a better aeroplane—perhaps one of the new-fangled monoplanes—within ten years. In those days, of course, operators did not have to think interms of ten years. The revolutionary Short Empire flying-boats were ordered in 1935. The prototype flew on July 4, 1936, andentered regular passenger service less than four months later, on October 31—a total development period of under two years. If this pace of development could be matched by modern heli-copters and VTOL aircraft, a wait-and-see attitude might be justi- fied. But a glance at the record reveals a very different picture. It is nearly ten years since Fairey Aviation began design work onthe Rotodyne. The prototype flew three-and-a-half years ago, on November 6, 1957. If, as should have happened long ago, sufficientmoney is put into the development programme by the Govern- ment, the Rotodyne may be ready for service by the mid-sixties—a total development period of some 15 years. It can be claimed that the Rotodyne is revolutionary; but so areall the alternative types of VTOL aircraft. Its design has been improved tremendously since the early fifties; yet what worthwhilemodern transport aircraft does not show improvement between the project stage and operational use? Its development could laws beenspeeded by Government subsidy; but how many modern British aircraft, civil or military, have been able to progress from design toProduction without perpetual policy changes, specification changes a;id threats of imminent cancellation? So there is no reason to feel'•• it 15 years is an unduly long period in which to expect a VTOL a:: craft to reach maturity. This time-scale must be borne in mind whenever VTOL opera-1 ns are contemplated. It is quite wrong to imply, as many people do, that the Rotodyne is so close behind the Vertol 107 or SikorskyS-61 as to be considered contemporary ; or that the other forms of VTOL aeroplane are within such easy reach that the stage of develop-ment represented by the Rotodync could be omitted. Even less realistic is the familiar suggestion that Britain should take anothermighty leap forward, by-passing the "conventional" supersonic airliner and producing a VTOL supersonic airliner of the Griffithjet-lift type by the end of the 1960s. Let us not say that this would be impossible, for our aircraftindustry is second to none when given its head; but post-war history proves that such speedy development is extremely improb-able, and that it is potentially disastrous to stake everything on a mighty technological leap in the dark. Already the prediction that all major airlines will be flyingsupersonic airliners by the late 1960s is beginning to appear hasty. Delegates to IATA's 14th Technical Conference at Montreal acouple of weeks ago were inclined to think in terms of the 1970s. Several of the more hard-headed favour the late 1970s now thatwork on the North American B-70 Mach 3 bomber has been slowed down. It would hardly be reasonable to expect a VTOL supersonicairliner to be ready for service before a "conventional" type. So, while doing everything possible to maintain the leadership given usby the Short SC.l and, in a different field, the Hawker P. 1127, it is time for this country to work out—and stick to—a realisticpolicy on VTOL flight for the next ten years. A Policy for BEA British European Airways were among thepioneers of helicopter operation, their early achievements including the world's first helicopter night-mail service (on February 21,1949) and the first regular passenger services, in June 1950. There are plenty of indications that they would like to get on with thejob of building up a network of helicopter passenger services in and from the UK, but that they are being hampered by lack of imagina-tion and courage in those who hold the purse-strings. A Penzance-Scilly service operated with a commercial develop-ment of the Belvedere, as has been suggested, would be a step in the right direction, but a hardly adequate one. Even jif the aircraftequalled the Vertol 107 and Sikorsky S-61 in efficiency, it would not be available as quickly and would hardly attract sufficientoverseas interest to justify the cost of its development. Nor is the Penzance-Scilly route, by itself, worthy of one of Britain's nationalairlines, which had the courage in the 1950s to set the pace in turbine transport operation. We should admit we have nothing to compare with the Vertoland Sikorsky designs at the present time, and order a large enough quantity of one of them for BEA to open a worthwhile network ofpassenger services based on London. Not having seen the S-61, it would be invidious to state a prefer-ence for either of these US helicopters. Both are basically 25-seaters and both are powered by General Electric CT58 shaft-turbines. In the heading picture: Vertol take a look ahead towards tilt-wing commercial transports powered by four 2,650 h.p. 164 engines
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