THE HELICOPTER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 14

THE HELICOPTER

NUMEROUS AND DIFFICULT PROBLEMS.

It is rather remarkable that after several centuries of fruitless effort and after mechanical flight has been successfully achieved by other means, the helicopter should, says "Engineering," continue to fascinate the inventor. We can only imagine that the problems involved are so rumerous and difficult that to many men the attraction really lies in the possibility of surmounting them.^ Of the many difficulties, 'the least is that of obtaining 1 the necessary vertical lifting force, and several machines capable of lifting themselves off the ground have, in fact, already been produced. Even this particular problem cannot, however, b 6 regarded as solved, since the necessary lift has only- been obtained by the consumption of an inordinate amount of fuel. The remaining difficulties of providing for horizontal motion, of ensuring stability and control in flight, and of securing a safe landing in the event of engine failure are much further from solution. While it cannot be denied that the ability of the helicopter' to rise from, and alight in, a confined i-pace would be a valuable feature in connection with aerial transport, since it would also lessen the danger of landing :n fogs, it must be remembered that when landing in a high wind, the direct-lift machine would be at a disadvantage in comparison with ths aeroplane. The only other epecial characteristic of the helicopter, viz., that it can, or should be able to, hover over any particular spot, has no particular interest from the point of view of air transport, the object of which is to convey passengers or goods through the air from one place to another as rapidly as possible, and not to remain stationary. The possibility of the ideal helicopter being able to hover has a somewhat greater attraction from the military standpoint, and it is presumably {or this reason that the Governments of several countries, including our own, have been endeavouring for some time to produce a machine of this type..