VERTICAL FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 8

VERTICAL FLIGHT

DEVELOPMENT IN BRITAIN

The efforts which the Air Ministry has made in the past ten years to encourage the development of aircraft capable of vertical ascent and descent are likely to be increased in future, writes the aviation correspondent of "The Times."

It had been hoped that before now a British company would have been formed to handle the Asboth helicopter, which an Air Ministry official tested some years ago. Recently the Cierva Company has established business relations with the Focke-Wulf Company in Germany, which has produced a helicopter of a loaded weight of 21001b capable of climbing vertically at the rate of 710 ft a minute. This machine holds the world's height record of 8000 ft for pure helicopters. The Cierva Company has given to the Germail company a licence to build the autogiro, and is in negotiation for certain rights in the Focke-Wulf helicopter.

If these are obtained they will form the basis for British experiments, and it may be possible for the Air Ministry to arrange for certain work to be undertaken by the Cierva Company.

The German helicopter has no fixed wings, but depends for its lift on two big airscrews set at the tips of the wing structure to rotate in a horizontal plane. Control is obtained partly through the airscrews themselves, and partly through elevators and rudder in the normal position. There is no tractor airscrew in the nose, but as the helicopter in vertical flight has no forward speed, a fan is set in front of the engine to cool it. Notwithstanding these characteristics, the helicopter is capable of a maximum forward speed of about 80 miles an hour. It therefore promises a combination of the power to move quickly over the ground with the ability to hover, which is of great value in avoiding collisions in bad weather. Its influence in introducing the aeroplane to districts where ordinary landings are impossible may lead to a wide extension of flying.