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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 1750.PDF
International, 3 September 1970 i . Wallis goes commercial AFTER NINE YEARS of development the Wallis autogyro is to be put into production, complete with, according to kcurrent plans, a full certificate of airworthiness. A pro duction ultra-light autogyro is not unusual, but one with a full C of A certainly is—only the Air and Space (ex- Umbaugh) 18A and the McCulloch J-2 have been certificated to date, in both cases by the FAA. The company which has taken on the task is Airmark. Formed originally in 1968, it has been interested in producing the Wallis for some time. New premises have been taken over at the Water Lane trading estate at Storrington in Sussex and work is already under way with a C of A target date for next spring. By the Paris Show next May, the production rate is planned to be one a week rising to 100 a year by the end of 1972. To take the very expensive step of going for full certifica tion, Airmark clearly has a lot of faith in the future of the autogyro and the company's attitude towards marketing the aircraft differs from that of current manufacturers. At present, ultra-light autogyros are aimed at the leisure market. The lack of a C of A prohibits most commercial applications. So a slightly "beach buggy" type of atmosphere has grown around this type of aircraft which, coupled with a rather poor accident record, has reduced its respectability in the eyes of potential commercial users. Airmark feels that a C of A will help considerably towards reversing this situation. Once certificated and in production, a major marketing exercise will be launched—plans for this are at present "flexible". In the meantime, as nothing concrete can be done until the goods can be shown, interest will be kept going by public relations schemes such as the showing of the Wallis at Harrods, as well as by the flying done by Wg Cdr Wallis in his own aircraft. This is usually assured of a wide audience—the Bond film being perhaps the best example. Recently he has been contracted to participate in the Loch Ness investigation programme. By flying at 60kts at between 4,000ft, 1,200m and 5,000ft, 1,500m he has been able to see just below the loch's surface. Armed with cameras the proce dure has been to patrol the 24 miles, 38km of the loch in this way. Wg Cdr Wailis will fly the WA.117 at the Farn- borough air show and a second craft will be in the static display. Once the craft is certificated, comercial use becomes feasible, which is where marketing consultant Keith Piatt, one of Air- mark's directors, comes in. Various police forces have shown interest in autogyros. The police already have access to Army helicopters but some delay in deployment is inevitable. Costing not much more than the patrol cars with which some police Above, Ken Wallis shows off the WA.117 in front of his country house. The production version will be only slightly modified forces favour themselves, the price of a gyrocopter could be authorised at local level. In police use—and in other commercial applications—the gyrocopter has the advantage of being easily road-transport able. As it is always cheaper to drive than to fly, there are obvious economic benefits in doing away with expensive ferry ing time. But against these advantages, the gyrocopter does need a take-off and landing run, albeit very short, and, more important, there is the major difficulty of respectability. It may well need a very thorough marketing programme to con vince, say, the police, that they would appear as dignified in what is, after all, an ultra-light aeroplane as in a helicopter. The Army has already evaluated the Wallis for the light obser vation helicopter (LOH) role under a contract with Beagle in 1962 but it came out in favour of a helicopter, the Bell Sioux. Other potential commercial users may have different views. Motorway-building companies have already shown interest and there are other possible uses, such as for power- line inspection. Another example is the possibility of use in wide open spaces such as on Australian sheep farms. Wg Cdr Wallis himself feels that th* chief market is in the commercial field. He points out that the autogyro scores over the helicopter in being in autorotation all the time which provides safer operation near the ground. But Airmark itself cannot be certain whether the bulk of the potential gyrocopter market lies in the private or the commercial sector. Whichever way it turns out, the company feels that the export market is where the real future is. To this end, it intends to put a major effort into establishing a good overseas distributor network. Although America has the largest population of gyrocopters, the regulations regarding private operation are not stringent and a high accident rate has resulted in the craft being looked upon with some disfavour. Cer tification would, no doubt, overcome this. In Australia, cer tification is virtually the only way to sell autogyros at all. The chief snag in obtaining certification is that no standards exist at present. A bit of a stalemate has arisen with the ARB saying that it will consider standards submitted for approval, but with some of the builders insisting that it is the ARB's job to write the standards. Airmark intends to overcome this difficulty by working to BCAR Section G, the helicopter requirements, modified where necessary with ARB approval. In many areas there is no need to meet the helicopter regula-
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