A PRIZE OF £50,000

Evening Star, Issue 17920, 16 March 1922, Page 9

A PRIZE OF £50,000

AIR MINISTRY’S OFFER.

It is the intention of the Air Ministry, iiin ‘ Evening Standard’ understands, to ,■ ijVer a prixe of £50,01.0 for a- practical design of a helicopter aeroplane. The, competition will not be limited, and foreign as well aa British inventors will bo invited to take part. The helicopter is a machine able to rise vertically and alight direct without the laxi-ing essential to existing machines. It also has the ability to remain motionless in mid-air.

The following are among the conditions or the machine;

Capable of rising to a height of 2,000 ft under its own power, carrying one man and one hour's fuel supply. Able to remain stationary over a ground object for ball a hour in any wind up io twenty miles an hour. Abie to land safely in any wind np to twenty miles an hour without horizontal motion, and with the engine, cut off. « Able to maintain horizontal flight at a height of a,CO At at a speed of not less than sixty miles an hour.

The Air Ministry attaches great importance to the helicopter aa a fighting arm. Such an invention would revolutionise flight, and would render the maintenance of extensive' and expensive aerodromes unnecessary.