THE NEW HELICOPTER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 15 March 1926, Page 10

THE NEW HELICOPTER.

v - FLYING AS EASY AS YACHTING. The search for means of stabilising .aeroplanes is going on with unremitting zeal. Much is expected of ,a new French ’plane, a multi-engined, perfected type of helicopter, that is declared to be capable of absolutely vertical ascent and descent, combined with the ability to hover motionless for any length of time. The designers are confident that the machine oan.fulfil with ease the conditions laidjdoWn in the British Air Ministry’s £50,000 prize competition for helicopters. These conditions include:

A vertical ascent to 2000 feet, and descent without damage from 500 feet .without engine working. A forward .speed of at least sixty miles an hour. Hover stationary for 30 minutes in a wind of not mor e than 20 miles per hour. It- was hoped by those who are backing this new Freqgh. machine that it would be in time to compete this year, but it ha.s been discovered that it is too late. Aeronautical experts, however, recognising the tremendous potentialities in war and peace of the successful' helicopter, are hoping that the Ministry will attempt to bring this new and promising machine to England for trial although the official competition .is closed. All this marks another step in the search, for methods of making aviation safer. The ‘‘windmill machine,” .as the Cierva autogiro is usually termed, has. of course, made a big advance-in this direction. Mr Frank T. Courtney, the well-known airman, has described just how the autogiro works. ■ If a, pilot is in difficulties, he says, near the.ground, as in the ease of a forced landing, or a, difficult take-off, lie must risk striking an obstacle at a high rate of forward speed or chance losing that speed and diving into the ground. This is the most common form of aeroplane crash. If' “stalling" can be eliminated, as by the autogiro it iis understood to. lie. then flying certainly becomes revolutionised. The autogiro lias a .certain definite miibiiiiu.m speed for level flight. This is much lower than that of .an ordinary aeroplane, v but nevertheless this machine does 'not claim to be able, to remain aloft, with no forward speed. But when the antogiro is pulled back below this minimum .speed jt remains in a horiontal attitude, and commences gradually to lose height. When all forward speed .is lost the machine drops vertically and with perfect stability. The slower the forward speed the faster the downward speed.—but the fastest downward speed is only equal to that of a. parachute. Thus the principal difficulty of flying is completely removed, and a drop through a thick fog at .night, for example, becomes a matter of sportive speculation instead of• one of almost certain death. The man who can handle a small yacht' will in future be able to flv.