The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, November 29, 1930, Page 8

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TOKLAU RT =- i = = = = = muti TIT AU ‘Latest Effor Experiments in designing helicopters that will fly like humming ‘birds, taking off or landing vertically or standing stock still in mid-air, have resulted in many queer planes, the newest of which is shown here By J. W. YOUNG NLY the rarest of birds would cock its wings at opposite angles, twirl itself round and round and spiral upward into the air. A freak bird flying in such a novel way would certainly win an enviable place for itself im the annals of birdcraft. But more important might be its moral influence on those humans who design aircraft. Scientists and inventors have always had the flight of birds to give them encourage- ment in developing the airplane. At times of dejection they have looked up at the effort- less, soaring flight of the buzzard and asked: “If a mere bird can fly without even flap- ping its wings, why cannot man with all the power of steam, gasoline and electricity at his command fly even better?” Encouraged by these thoughts, they have returned to their laboratories to work and build, until they have made the powerful; swift airplane of today. But those who have tried to make a heavier-than-air flying machine ‘that (ould rise straight up and remain stationary in the air have gotten no such encouragement from bide For.there is no bird We can: fly, vertically and only one that can stay still in mid-air. It is the hummi The humming bird can ane backwards. How he does it, no one seems to know. Judging by the tone of the hum he makes in flying, he must flap his wings as often as 200 times a second. Maybe some scientist will soon analyze this wing movement with an ultra, slow-motion pic- ture camera. Even without an example in nature:to encourage them, inventors of helicopters, who have been at work as long as those who flew airplanes a quarter of a century ago, seem nearer their goal this sum- mer than ever before. The latest helicopter, as ver- tical rising aircraft are known among technical men, is being ae Tt is the combinéd product of the ingenuity of a 27-year-old inventor and the research organization of a $70,000,000 corporation. This newest helicopter is very much unlike any individual Hips of the past. Its builders, the Curtiss-Wright Ce orporation, make no fantastic pre- dictions. They call it “a step toward controlled ver- tical ascent and descent.” Points have been taken from a number of preceding helicopters, and this new one is expected to utilize’ fully the experience + of the past. After a preliminary test the latter part of June in which the ship did not attempt to rise from the ground, the following explanation was given disap- pointed spectators: “Reason and logic were against such a fet but, if they were net Tiga heavy mist, a choppy wind, ds ancl a minor leak in the oiling system combined to. make® it-impossible.”” Further tests are expected soon, however. ‘What a helicopter must do has been well defined by the makers of the new machine. “The true helicopter,” they say, “‘is.a flying machine that will be able to lift itself weaallg ‘off the ground, to hover indefinitely over a givén spot, to descend ver- tically under its own power, and to achieve safe descent in the event of engine‘failure. In addition, i must by able to move horizontally at satisfactory and to be controllable and gainjactonly, stable aie all flight conditions."* versatile Leonardo da Vinci. Its aerodynamic Principles were carefully thought oi and a sketch, which is still in exist- ence, va a le of the i prepoeed craft before te inventor's death in 1519, need of an onaiee fot al- rat hag eae by Sir Roger Bacon ty "far beck as By 1843 helicopter design was well 4 in the model-making stage. Encouraged by the new steam engine, inventors were trying to use it as a potas lant for aircraft. Sir Cayley made a model wl appreciation for same aerodynamic principles present-day inventors are find- ing they must follow. He used two liftirig propellers or air- screws which turned in opposite diectinns te fo, prave sta- bal and smaller airscrews to drive the craft horizontally. is was just one of the many helicopters that have been designed, modeled or actually built. To invent helicopters that would not fly successfully seems to have been a weakness, even of eet men of science. America have inspiri rubber unforeseen the building of models. AUURULUALACLAAIAMIAAMAOUCAOUAAQONN CHAR LILOLELE ANAC ALATA LMS OME tae AS MA % avian B. Foetal in the front cockpit of his helicopter . t contributions to he! Teen Kure boos mete by ths lie Bes inventor of the mercury arc lamp, and by Dr. liner, who, was originally responsible for the disc talking , machine. Such seni were doubtless much encoura: per ogy wet models. lodel fie temas from the ground and easily climb to great “ee when such sult are made large enough to lift teal people instead of miniature humans, sulties of construction Which do not affect In fact, if a full-sized vertically-rising machine worked as well as its small-sized model, airplanes and susie would be’ readily discarded while many types of the n vertical-rising craft would carry thousands thro “The only bird that offers ariy it tion. , to, designers Bs stray machines. . Ai « is the h oF a hind ‘ down to about 1 much power is lost. wings. tion to design and invention in + Hewitt, the place of wings of le Ber- must compare with 'N spite of the fact that large rotating wings ward ne peeruiet dl den. explains. the probes eae mac! STH The Curtiss-Bleecker helicopter . act! to fly straight up... Te ‘ratios . greater than ls per Pewee are achieved in aodalis says Dr. H. L. Dryden, authorit: Hehe on aerody- namics" at the Bureau of Standards, but ‘nly a frac- tion of a horsepower is ap- plied to these models and little an is lifted. If be ratios held for man- mee craft, a wonder ile of. air: transportation wou bes up. However, dif- ficulties ‘of nical con- struction multiply and laws of aerodynamics become more severe as the size of vertically rising craft is- increased. rotating wings of models can be made very light and do not require the structural bracing necessary in real machines. It is very difficult to design this bracin * to combine both’ étrength ai fight, weight. The wings of models also be se mah: faster than those of big machines be- cause ability to rise — more on circumferential speed Spaniard Cierva's-autogiro . be throttled down to 2 at the wing tip dae on revolutions per minute. Hence, to attain the same circumferential speed, a small propeller m must beats more revolutions than a large one. easily reached in models by means of elastics or clockwork, but it is very anak to. gear high-speed aircraft motors pons per minute for the chines. A heavy, pt system of gearing is necessary ai speed is big ma- Tn the new ele optes this difficulty has been partly over- come by having propellers on each of the four rotating ese propellers are driven at gearing to the motor and in turn drive the rotating wings. high speed by direct seem awk- jaye been polite the fet solu- how to rise serealy, Dr. Dry-! oot ich he began desig ning while still: a’ student’ at the University ‘hines attem, It years LOT of performance is packed in those two of oP Michigen 5 id central motor above the pilot Gives ‘ago and one or more small prope! marti turned as FA sentences, and engineers have not yet made a “all four wing propellers. fast as those that drive airplanes today: These See were pasion tbat will pies ; everything oso ne ey They bag ted Learn ae au inl are, however, learning ily more al ro} er is increased, fer requil rises dynamic laws the new craft must obey, and how t to design OMAS A. EDISON has long been a believer in this much my Ag than the force pulling eet Ext helicopters so that least effort will be expended in making form of craft fot air transportation. He holds a patent the aerodynamic law, power ig proportional to the cube of these ey work for on a machine wl revolving wings are in reality the speed, ot thrust, or upward driving force, to the square The ‘first helicopter was a product of the brain of the box kites connected by piano wire. most im- of the spee The pw surfaces must be large because they take usual ai ; airplane fast-increasing 4 jul “A realign is, after all, an iplane, Thee linear hegre airplane i by the with rotating wings ms rien Se Her ‘ln eran licopters, engineer once di Consist two airplanes bands or clockwork, will readily attached to opposite mats beam and he in opposite directions. “The ala ‘was suj to rise by revolving there arise many early ma through the . TT Nn Som UUIY TUT uT evrevererery riviriievivirrritreverr ity) yy * about the middle of the be machines were to face in the same direction and ordinary airplanes. Though I never heard of an actual trial, ie arrangement well illustrates the principle of vertically- ising »aircraft.” ” Sotae of the first helicopters, whose failuie helped to find aetodynamic laws applying to them, were curious craft. a combination. and a parachute, and was to be operated by man-power. — (Copyright, 1930, By EveryWeek Magazine and Science Service—Printed in U. 8. A.) represented fais bod cnee We e the travel ike between a bicycle ’ oe eevee teen a nen mene nae oon OAPAR ETS 6.2 ace Itis like four small airplanes revolving around a central point. or 30 miles an hour. . but does not attempt straight-up ascent. Ln TTT + latest of many machines Selah i descent after the operator pparently uppermost in the mind, of: ‘wenty. propellers: were used to’ ope et: Which was built in- 1908. and 1909 Wilbur 1 R Kimball of the ne Society of New York. gasoline motor was itnproved’ and more power was conceaerstel into less space, and as inventors lea that they must use a few large slow-rotating surfaces rather than many fast- aptraed brpetler. their problem changed, or rather it- was half solved. They found that it was com- paratively easy to rise sh inthe air; but, once up, could not control I theit machine .and bes it ae safely back to earth. Many helicopters had xy to ‘soar upward, swing éver in a great arc ond come diving back to the ground head first. -’ IROBABLY the ee successful vertically-rising flying machine was the Petroczy-Karman_ helicopter devel- oped in Rode duri se the World War. But it could rise ds up and decnouing else. It was tethered to the ind by three nd and as long as these cables were fept taut, it could not tip over. It could not be controlled well enodgh to permit it to sink to earth gradually under a lessening of its own’ power, but-it had to be in the cablesv:During one’:teit ror. ited “wah: am let motor and success! for'a few minutes on cur- rent_supplie from the ground. tench have ht soon iyi in the Oehmichen heli- copter by swinging dees craft beneath a small balloon. The balloon is by no means i epitee to me the entire weight but its buoyancy wee to the'craft rij be ht side aes mpressed air was Leinweber Brothers o Chicago as the’ stabilizi he the their hakee rhe os craft was designed so that the least tilt out of balance would swing a pendulum to set in motion a co1 air motor. ‘This in turn was to open a valve which would allow air to enter the motor and right the machine instantly. It was a humming bird-that, by its well-controlled flight first directed the attention of the father of the Leinwel rothers toward building a heli- copter. After the father's death, jis sons con! the experimental .. work. ‘They: devised: a new type od Debpelle, a motor that ‘has im- nse horsepower for its pe and th the system of tilfing motors to any angle by means of compressed air. ‘ INCE the World War there has been no want of helicop- _ ter_inventors and trial ma- chines. They ‘are in nearl: every cents Even if euch cra must be tied dowa with a rope, it Kas been: learned that they are often. better for observation pur- bes in war than captive balloons. y cannot be seen from a great dene, are-small targets Te- uire few men in their ground crews as = pers to the “sausage” balloon. ly-moving helicopter is a success, it will be unequaled as a bombing machine. The ability to hover over a ‘pening Point, entirely station: ine relation to a fixed spot uch as a fort or would at one stroke remove bigs As obese eet 100. ss cay cole ‘accuracy in-bombing. Among othe: have been the subject ei extensive praia ene the. past decade is one developed by Louis Brennan for the British government. Great secrecy surrounded its building and tests. Dr. Berliner and his son, Emory A., of Washin built a machine which made use of an "airplane fusi But instead of wings there were two propellers which turned in Capers directions to ay the machine vertically. Hori- zontal motion was gotten by means-of a three-foot propeller near the tail of the ship to tat the entire machine by raising and lowering the tail. : siieteatas Ui smany engineers’ were secking ve - rectly, Juan de-la Cieiva, a: youn pir and former member of parliament, to make a cross be- peas a true airplane el a true helicopter. In effect, he wings ‘an ordinary biplane and erected pr the ship four windmill blades which turn in a horizon- tal plane at will, being connected to no source of power. HEN he tested his machine he found that it would not remain stationary in the air, but it would travel very slowly indeed. He could throttle it down to 20 or 30 miles an hour. It would not climb straight up, but it would rise: at.a vety soe, [teceetiy Clara made a vertical descent of. 1 eedpaen The newest they Curtiss ~ Blascker machine, which’ has Reon wats devel t for four years, seems to make use of the principles of all vertically-r rising craft that have gone before. It is the invention of Maitland B. Blee ne er who Besta te an, One hen _a ytudent at the Unive: In 1926 (ey sold his idea to the Cane Wi Cariuse on moved to their plant. Curtiss engineers make no as to the perform- ance of their belicopter-antl ight, trials in the near future are ct They do, radi express confidence that it will rise vertically, hover over a given spot, safely vertically and move horizontally at a reeneuaee speed. . enables a planet to IMLIVOOGUUCOUUAAEAAOUAEEOUGOAAEASOAAAEOA EAA VM AEEAALOALUNLEAAUAUERULUCL tre svi tats4i 1sica1stousi1QO4MMdAMMMUSALAMAMOLGLe aaa oo Ae od dn

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