WINGLESS FLYING.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 12

WINGLESS FLYING.

EFFORTS OF INVENTORS. AMERICAN AND FRENCH RIVALS. Two Americans, Dr. P. C. Hewitt and Professor F. B. Crocker, are racing to complete a wingless flying machine before the Frenchmen have launched theirs, writes a correspondent from London.

The American machine is a helicopter, and will rely entirely upon the action of its two screws to lift it bodily from the earth or a roof, and then to drive it forward when at the desired height from the ground. Similarly, by altering the speed of the propellers sufficiently, the lifting force will, it is contended, be just enough to neutralise gravitation and make it possible for the machine to poise at a given altitude, or by decreasing the measure of this upward thrust of the screws, the machine will slowly descend.

In the helicopter which the Americans are building there are two propellers, one_ above the other, which will rotate horizontally in opposite directions, one being a right-hand and the. other a left-hand screw, but, of course, both exerting their drive or thrust in a downward direction, so as to furnish a lifting impulse. The propellers have a diameter of just, over 50ft. Each has two blades, and in this they differ from the French machine, which has four blades. To obtain li?h*iip« in combination with strength the blades are made aluminium, which also renders them non-inflammable.

Two engines will drive the machine and if one should fail the two propellers will still revolve, under the impulse of the remaining engine. This is important, because a helicopter of this type could, if crippled in this manner descend to earth so slowly that it would not be injured by a too sudden descent. Up to the present the British do not appear to have entered the competition for a wingless flyinir machine. This •ay lie because, I understand, both the French and the American designs have been protected in this country. It will be interesting to see which machine rises into the air first.