Vertical Flight

Long before aviation was an accomplished fact, experimenters knew that the ideal airplane would rise vertically, hover at will, descend vertically, gently. For safety in commercial transport, for observation and bombardment by military aircraft, the value of such a ship is obvious. Millions have been spent in the U. S. and abroad, scores of models of helicopters* constructed without producing one craft which could reliably perform the essential maneuvers.

A large crowd of airmen, newshawks, photographers assembled last week at Curtiss Airport, Valley Stream, L. I. for their first view of the Curtiss-Bleecker helicopter. For four years, at a cost of $250,000, it had been under secret development by Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co. A little oil leak prevented a trial flight, but young Designer Maitland Barkelew Bleecker sat at the controls, grinned in happy anticipation as the four wings revolved horizontally above his head.

The wings of the Curtiss-Bleecker are mounted at right angles to each other, to rotate about a vertical axis. Each wing is equipped with a propeller, shaft-driven by a central Wasp motor mounted horizontally in the axis. Also to each wing is rigged a controllable "flipper," comparable to an aileron. Beneath the entire assembly is a tiny two-place gondola with nearly conventional controls, landing gear, rudder.

The Bleecker helicopter is designed to rise with wings rotating at 60 revolutions per minute. In flight, this may be speeded to 100 r. p. m. The machine is designed to move in any direction. Flight direction is controlled by a cam which changes the position of the "flippers" of each rotating wing as it passes a given point, and by changing the angle of the wings themselves.

Conservative Curtiss engineers would make no predictions, pending exhaustive flight tests but they believe it possible to fly the helicopter off a hangar floor at two feet of altitude, out through the door, then upward at 1,000 ft. per min., in any direction at 70 m. p. h.; also, to hover over one spot while the fuel lasts, descend with or without power no faster than the largest type parachute.

The Designer. Maitland Barkelew Bleecker, 27, is a direct descendant of Jan Jansen Bleecker who reached New Amsterdam (Manhattan) in 1658, and whose grandchildren established the Bleecker Farm on the property now traversed by Manhattan's Bleecker Street. Generation after generation of Bleeckers were strongly represented in New York's political, social and business life until recently. Designer Bleecker studied at the Bach School of Aeronautical Engineering, University of Michigan. He conceived his helicopter idea six years ago, took it in 1926 to Curtiss, who lent their resources and facilities to its development.

History. First recorded experiments with helicopters were made by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) who made four models equipped with paper propellers. Many later efforts undoubtedly are lost to history, but in 1871 a helicopter of obscure fate was built in France by M. A. Penaud. Experiments were made with slight success in 1905 by the Dane, Ellehammer; in 1906 in France by the Brazilian, Santos-Dumont, in 1907 by M. Breguet. By 1923 Austria had its Petroczy; Great Britain its Brennan; France its Damblanc, Oemichen and Pescara; Spain its la Cierva. In the U. S., meanwhile, Henry Berliner, Baltimore aircraft builder, had spent a fortune in a decade's experiment, and Rumanian Professor Georges de Bothezat was conducting researches at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. For all of that labor, no helicopter was born.

Autogiro. Not to be confused with the helicopter is the Cierva Autogiro which, while capable of vertical descent, cannot take off without a short run and cannot hover indefinitely (TIME, Sept. 2). Officials of Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Co. of America declared last week that commercial production would be begun at Willow Grove, Pa., in August or September.

*From the Greek: "helico" meaning spiral; "pteron" meaning wing.

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