HELICOPTER RECORD

Evening Star, Issue 22956, 13 May 1938, Page 1

HELICOPTER RECORD

WOMAN PILOT STENDAL TO BERLIN Germany is experimenting extensively with the helicopter. Professor Henrich Focke, the inventor of an important type of this form of craft, hopes to perfect his machine for general use* With its almost vertical take-oif and independence of spacious landing grounds, such a machine has possibilities when problems of speed and length of flight are solved. f ■ The results of Professor Focke’s experiments were shown to the public a few months ago, when Captain Hanna Reitsch, the famous woman glider, flew, a helicopter of his design from Stendal to Berlin—a distance of 65 miles —and ended with an exhibition of reverse flying over the Tempelhof airfield. This is considered a new record for helicopter flying, which had hitherto remained within exceedingly modest limits. Captain Reitsch also attracted popular interest, by flying the machine as a feature of a revue in the Deutschlandhalle some weeks ago. There was thunderous applause as it rose vertically, flew around, “ danced a waltz ” in the air, and landed • vertically, all within the closed hall, thus providing a record in indoor flying. DREAM OF DA VINCI.

la Professor Focke’s work, it ap, pears, the dream of Leonardo da Vinci,, in the fifteenth century, has been realised. In sketch and words the Italian master suggested an idea strangely similar to the modern helicopter. Ha wrote of a quickly-rotating screw boring its way through the air. Lack of effective driving power in those remote days prevented the idea being carried out. but it cropped up again in the experiments of French mathematicians and physicists of later centuries. During the last century the only real success was the Italian Forlanini’s small model in 1878. The possibility of the “ screw " flight came nearer accomplishment with the invention, of a light and efficient internal combustion engine; but attention was centred more upon the fixed wing plane, because of the greater* technical difficulties in the development of the helicopter. Nevertheless, Xouis Breguet, as early as 1907, succeeded in building a helicopter that would ascend and stay up for a few seconds. Various Governments have encouraged experiments with this type of machine;] but even in 1936 the world records for ascent were 18 metres, duration _of flight Bmin 4osec, and distance one kilometer—very small compared with the aeliievemf.ats ‘of* the fixed-wing ■ plane. Between 1936 and 1937 Louis Breguet and Ren© Durand beat these previous records for helicopter flying, and increased the duration of flight to Hi 2min 50sec, the height to 158 metres, and the distance to 44,669 kilometers. Germans had experimented little with' helicopters up to this time, and so it was a great surprise to the world when, in June, 1937, a German helicopter,F.W.61, built by Professor Focke, of Brennan, broke all records. It stayed up in the air Ih 20min 49sec, has a speed of 120,553 kilometres (about 75 miles) an hour. Further, it could ascend quite vertically to a height or 2,500 metres, stand still jn mid-air, and land vertically. ROTATING WINGS. The F.W.61 is built of welded chro-mium-molybdenum steel tubes covered with cloth. Rotating wings take the place of the stationary side wings found in the commercial plane. The undercarriage is also of chromium-molyb-denum steel tubes. The rotating side wings consist of three blades, formed of steel tubes and wooden ribs covered with cloth. In the front part of the hull is an engine of only 160 horsepower. The plane has no propeller for propulsion, as the subsequent models have had, but only a front ventilator, which serves to cool the engine during a halt in mid-air. The fuel tank can carry 60 litres. Steering is managed by changing the angle of the blades of the rotating wings by means of spindles worked from the driver’s seat. The sponsors of the Focke helicopter say that it is not necessary to have the high degree of technical ability of a Hanna Reitsch to fly this machine. A man who can drive an automobile should, in their opinion, be able to manage the helicopter.