Now You Can Fly Straight Up

This sensational flying machine is the helicopter and the man who brought it into being is one of the greats in Aviation's Hall of Fame, Igor Sikorsky. We thought all MACHANIX ILLUSTRATED readers would want to know what is anticipated for this amazing machine by its creator, so we obtained permission to interview Mr. Sikorsky recently and came away with the following approved interview:

Igor Sikorsky had a twinkle in his eye when he greeted me in his office at the giant Vought-Sikorsky plant. He's a quiet mannered fellow, but when he talks planes he's as enthusiastic as a kid with a new bike. A few minutes before we met he'd been flying one of the most amazing ships in aviation history, the Vought-Sikorsky helicopter.

It can fly straight up, land gently straight down, or move easily through the air in practically any direction. It could take off from Bob Smith's backyard, skim swiftly cross-country, and settle down easily to a parking space on the roof of Bill Jones' apartment. And it has it all over the automobile where parking is concerned. It can hover a few feet above a space while the pilot sizes it up, then , literally hanging in the air, it can back up, edge forward , or move sideways in either direction.

Sikorsky has simplified it quite a bit since he first designed it. The three rotors originally carried at the tail have been reduced to one, eliminating the outriggers, and bringing the inexpensive privately-owned helicopters of the future that much nearer to reality.

I asked Mr. Sikorsky if he thought that helicopters could be turned out at about the price of a car, and he told me that it all depends on the demand for them. "If there should be a demand for 10,000 helicopters," he said, "they could probably be made to sell at a figure comparable to a moderately priced aircraft. If the demand reached the proportions it has for automobiles, the price of helicopters might be reduced to about the same as a medium priced car.

The idea of vast numbers of helicopters hopping straight up from lawns and streets fascinated me. I suggested the term "flivver-copters" for them, and Sikorsky countered with "heli-flivvers." And that's probably what they'll be called when the public takes to the sky in them a few years from now. The fact that they can come to a complete stop in mid-air, and remain there ,will do much to relieve aerial traffic problems. If you have to stop short when the woman down the street pulls up in front of you from the roof of the hat shop, it'll be possible to hover there for a few minutes while you bawl her out. Then you can back up and continue your flight to the office.

But all that is , nd Igor Sikorsky doesn't deal in fantasy. His incredible ship is real. It's a present day actuality like the mighty Vought-Sikorsky fighters that fly with the Navy, or the huge 40-passenger Vought-Sikorsky VS-44-A now being readied for transatlantic service.

The possibility of mass production of "heli-flivvers" is also very real. To my surprise, Mr. Sikorsky informed me that they can be made with very little duralumin-ordinary aircraft steel tubing being practically the only material needed for their construction. He also pointed out that the helicopter doesn't require any super engines. The same motors that are being turned out by the thousands for conventional planes are also ideally suited to the helicopter. Plants now building automobile transmissions for the armed forces can easily produce the other mechanical parts of the helicopter-aside from the standard airplane equipment which is already in production.

Perhaps the "heli-flivvers" will solve the post war problem of the aircraft industry by keeping the vast plane factories of the nations running at near capacity, to supply a civilian demand for ships that anybody can fly-anywhere. Igor Sikorsky thinks that might happen. "While it is not possible to predict just how quickly public demand will develop," he said, "it seems reasonably certain that the helicopter will absorb a considerable part of the industry's productive capacity when military orders are reduced after the war."

But the little 2-passenger jobs are not the only type of helicopter that Sikorsky has been thinking about for the future. He told me that larger ones could be built to carry as many as 20 passengers. These would serve as flying buses, between metropolitan areas and airports, for he does not believe that the helicopter will ever replace the airplane for high speed long distance travel or for carrying heavy loads. He sees it as an efficient means of pleasure travel and commuting.

He doesn't believe that the top speed of true helicopters will get beyond 150 miles an hour, nor that the passenger capacity will exceed 20 persons. The conventional airplane, on the other hand, can attain immense proportions. "Even at the present time," he said, "we could build a 1000-passenger airplane along conventional lines."

And when Sikorsky speaks of big planes he speaks with ample knowledge, for as early as 1913 he had already built what was then the largest airplane in the world. Since that time his giant multi-motored airliners have gained international fame for their speed and luxury. Among his foremost designs are the giant 4-motored flying boats and amphibian that bear his name, and that have contributed so much to the safety and comfort of aerial transportation.

Born in Kiev, Russia, Mr. Sikorsky came to the United States 22 years ago, and since that time has produced many of the nation's greatest aircraft for both war and peace. It is not surprising that he should now add the first wholly successful true helicopter to his long record of achievement. He feels that this one will have its greatest possibilities in time of peace, although its usefulness in war is also apparent. Among the military possibilities for the helicopter are liaison work, rescue work on land or at sea, observation, submarine spotting, and the rendering of quick medical assistance.

To fully appreciate its possibilities under all circumstances it is only necessary to tell a few of the things it has already done. With Mr. Sikorsky himself at the controls, the helicopter early in its career, broke the world's endurance record for ships of its type. And it must be remembered that it was the first successful single main rotor helicopter in the world.

Since then it has performed all sorts of hitherto impossible feats. On one occasion it hovered motionless in the air a few feet above the ground while an attendant removed one of its landing wheels. It remained in the air over the same spot while photographs were taken, then the wheel was replaced for the landing. At other times packages have been placed aboard by assistants on the ground while the ship "parked" in the air close to the ground. It has landed and taken off vertically in tiny spaces hemmed in on all sides by trees and obstructions, places where no other aircraft in the world could possibly have operated.

It can't stall or spin under any conditions, and so would provide an unparalleled factor of safety in the hands of a non-professional flyer, and it can be handled easily and safely even if the engine stops in the air. It travels in any direction simply by "tilting" it with the controls, and it can climb or descend either vertically or on the slanted course common to conventional aircraft-all by a few simple movements of the throttle and controls.

It does all these things with the power provided by an ordinary airplane motor developing the same amount of power as the motors in the private ships that fly over your house every day, about the same power that drives many a family car-90 horsepower.

Its designer flies it in a business suit and a felt hat, and although he sits in an open cockpit directly below the rotor that carries the ship straight up in the sky, his hat never blows off. There's no trick to the hat, but the wind blows downward in a helicopter. And that's just one more advantage it have over the roadsters we've been driving around for the past quarter century.