SCIENCE & INVENTION

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 19 November 1923, Page 1

SCIENCE & INVENTION

THE HELECOPTER AND ITS USES. It is rather remarkable that, aftei several centuries of fruitless effort am after mechanical flight has been success fully achieved by other means, the helicopter should, says "Engineering, continue to fascinate the inventor. We can only imagine that the problems involved are* so numerous and difficult that to many men the attraction really lies in the possibility of surmounting them. Of the many difficulties, the least is that of obtaining the necessary vertical lifting force, and several machines capable of lifting themselves off the ground have, iu fact, already been produced. Even this particular problem cannot, however, be regarded as solved, since the necessary lift, has only been obtained by the consumption of an inordinate amount of fuel, fhi’ remaining difficulties of providing for horizontal motion, of ensuring stability and control in flight, and of seeming a safe landing in the event of engine failure, are much further from • solution, while it cannot be denied that the ability of the helicopter to rise from, and alight in, a confined space would be a valuable feature in connection with aerial transport, since it would enable air routes to commence and terminate in the hearts of large cities and would also lessen the danger of landing in fogs. It must l>« remembered that when landing iu a high wind, the direct-lift machine would be nt a disadvantage m comparison w"' Hit hunk, in the valley of Eddlestou Water, aeroplane. The omy other special cn«...teristic of the helicopter, viz., that it can, or should be able to, Ijover over any particulai spot, has no particular interest from tile point of view of air transport, the object of which is to convey passengers or goods through the air from one place to .mother as rapidly as possible.

and not to remain stationary. The pus ability of tile ideal helicoptef being able io hover has a somewhat greater attraction from the military standpoint, and it is presumably for this reason .that the Governments of several countries, including our own. have been endeavouring for some time to produce a machine of this type.