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  • 1930/1945

    1945 / 1950

    "How will they fly if they haven't wings!"



    1945-1950 Highlights

    US Congress criticized the US Navy for largely ignoring the helicopter's enormous military potential during a 1943 Senate investigation chaired by Harry S. Truman

    Piasecki PV 3 Dog Ship: First world's successful tandem-rotor Helicopter (March 7,1945) See Boeing
    Bell 47: First world's certified civil helicopter NC-1H (March 8, 1946) See Bell
    Mc Donnell Little Henry: First world's ram-jet helicopter (1947) See See Mc Donnell Douglas
    Sikorsky S-52: Metal blades rotor (1947) See Sikorsky
    Hiller 360: First civilian helicopter to cross the United States (1949) See Hiller
    Sikorsky S-51 HO3S-1G US Coast Guard H035-l completed the longest unescorted helicopter ferry flight on record. The trip from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Port Angeles, Washington, via San Diego, California, a distance of 3,750 miles, took 10 1/2 days to complete and involved a total flight time of 57.6 hours. (April 6,1949)


    1942, June 29 : Following an inspection of Igor I. Sikorsky's VS-300 helicopter on 26 June, Lieutenant Commander F. A. Erickson, US Coast Guard, recommended that helicopters be obtained for antisubmarine convoy duty and life-saving.

    1942, July 24 : The US Bureau of Aeronautics issued a Planning Directive calling for procurement of four Sikorsky helicopters for study and development by Navy and Coast Guard aviation forces.

    1943:, US Congress criticized the US Navy for largely ignoring the helicopter's enormous military potential during a Senate investigation chaired by Harry S. Truman

    Frank Piasecki PV 2 : His first project (not built) , the PV 1, was a NOTAR class helicopter, but the time 1940 technology wasn't ready for that advancement yet

    Helicopters 1945/1950


    February 15, 1943 : First USCG helo detachment The Commander in Chief US Fleet assigned responsibility for sea-going development of helicopters and their operation in convoys to the Coast Guard and directed that tests be carried out to determine if helicopters operating from merchant ships would be of value in combating submarines.

    Doblhoff WNF 342 : (Austria) Built in Germany by Friedrich Von Doblhoff, A. Stepan and Theodor Laufer was the first to take off and land using slade-tip jets to drive the rotor

    May 4 : To expedite the evaluation of the helicopter in antisubmarine operations, the Commander in Chief, US Fleet directed that a "joint board" be formed with representatives of the Commander in Chief, US Fleet; the Bureau of Aeronautics; the Coast Guard; the British Admiralty and the Royal Air Forces. The resulting Combined Board for the Evaluation of the Ship-Based Helicopter in Anti-Submarine Warfare was later expanded to include representatives of the Army Air Forces, the War Shipping Administration and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

    May 7 : US Navy representatives witnessed landing trials of the XR-4 helicopter aboard the merchant tanker Bunker Hill in a demonstration sponsored by the Maritime Commission and conducted in Long Island Sound. The pilot, Colonel R. F. Gregory, AAF, made about 15 flights, and in some of these flights he landed on the water before returning to the platform on the deck of the ship.

    Arthur Young 's Bell 30. invention of the stabilizing bar for the main rotor

    June 10 : Lieutenant Commander F. A. Erickson, US Coast Guard , proposed that helicopters be developed for antisubmarine warfare, "not as a killer craft but as the eyes and ears of the convoy escorts."
    To this end he recommended that helicopters be equipped with radar and dunking sonar.

    October 16 :

    The US Navy accepted its first helicopter, a Sikorsky YR-4B (HNS-1), at Bridgeport, Connecticut, following a 60 minute acceptance test flight by Lieutenant Commander F. A. Erickson, US Coast Guard.

    Helicopters 1945/1950



    December 18 : On the basis of his belief that tests indicated the practicability of ship-based helicopters, the US Chief of Naval Operations separated the pilot training from test and development functions in the helicopter program. He directed that, effective 1 January 1944, a helicopter pilot training program be conducted by the US Coast Guard at Floyd Bennett Field, under the direction of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air).

    1944

    Nikolai Kamov (USSR)

    The Ka-8 Vertolet, a single-seat helicopter with a 27 hp M-76 engine, boosted to 45 hp by using alcohol for fuel

    Ka-8 Helicopters 1945/1950


    January 3 : The first US recorded helicopter lifesaving operation

    January 16 : Lieutenant Graham, US Coast Guard, while en route from New York to Liverpool in the British freighter Daghestan made a 30 minute flight in an R-4B (HNS-1) from the ship's 60 by 80 foot flight deck. Weather during the mid-winter crossing of the North Atlantic permitted only two additional flights and, as a result, the sponsoring Combined Board for Evaluation of the Ship-based Helicopter in Anti-Submarine Warfare concluded that the helicopter's capability should be developed in coastal waters until models with improved performance became available.

    Cierva-Weir W.9 :

    This helicopter was rather unique in its use of jet thrust to counteract rotor torque reaction and the rotor lacked any collective pitch control, rotor thrust was controlled by changing rotor speed as in the pre-war Weir W-5/6 models. The W-9 crashed during a test flight in 1946.

    Helicopters 1945/1950



    July 4 : Stanley Hiller XH-44 First world's successful all-metal rigid-rotor blades helicopter

    Bendix

    September : First helicopter school in the United States is created at Freeman Field, Seymour with Sikorsky R-4B helicopters flown direct to the field from the factory. The school was transferred in December 1944 to Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois.

    Kellett YO-60 Autogyro could take off without a forward run
    Helicopters 1945/1950


    1945

    Czech industry is nationalized and all factories producing aicraft and motor vehicles were formed into a state consorcium known as "Ceskoslovenske automobilove a letecke zavody".
    The VR-1 is built from salvaged spare parts of German Focke Angelis 223 Drache

    Helicopters 1945/1950



    March 7 : Piasecki PV 3 Dog Ship: First world's successful tandem-rotor Helicopter

    1946

    Brantly B-1 : (USA) N.P.Brantly was one of a number of engineers experimenting with helicopters in the immediate post-war period. In 1946, he started flight testing his Brantly B-1 helicopter which had been constructed by his employer, the Pennsylvania Elastic Company. In common with other designers, he decided on a counter-rotating co-axial twin rotor layout and the B-1 prototype (NX69125) was powered by a 150hp Franklin engine buried in the tube and fabric fuselage of the craft.

    Brantly Helicopters 1945/1950



    Aerocentre NC 2001 / 2002 Abeille : (France) Experimental twin rotor helicopter
    NC2001 Abeille Helicopters 1945/1950



    Firestone Model 45 (R-9 / H-9): (USA) XR-9B received serial number 46-001
    Firestone 45 R-9 Helicopters 1945/1950



    Cierva-Weir W.11 Air Horse (UK)
    Cierva Weir  W11 Helicopters 1945/1950


    Landgraf (USA) Single place twin rotor helicopter with a hinge-less rotor blade for the US Air Corps
    Landgraf Helicopters 1945/1950


    March 8 : Bell 47: (USA) First world's certified civil helicopter ( NC-1H )

    1947

    January 1st : Aviation pioneer Martin Jensen establishes the Jensen Helicopter Company on his ranch in Tonsaket, Washington, USA where he developed the Model 21.

    January 10 : UK Westland signed a licence agreement with United Aircraft Corporation to manufacture the Sikorsky S-51. This event signalled Westland's move into the helicopter business.

    : Sud-Ouest SO 1100 Ariel (France)| The first Sud-Ouest (later Aerospatiale ) helicopter, was an all metal, two-seat with Tip jet powered rotors.

    July 7 : SGVI: First helicopter made in Canada.
    SGVI Helicopters 1945/1950


    July : E-1: (Czechoslovakia) A model of this project worked out at Karlin was shown at Brussels in July 1947. It had two intermeshing two-bladed rotors, the hubs of which were very close together. Also provided was a tricycle landing gear with the rear wheels directly below the twin vertical fins. The project was later canceled.

    Mc Donnell Little Henry: (USA) First world's ram-jet helicopter


    Sikorsky S-52: (USA) First world's helicopter with metal rotor blades.

    December 7 : Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne : (UK) This compound aircraft used a propeller set on the end of a stub wing to provide both propulsion and antitorque reaction.
    Fairey Gyrodyne Helicopters 1945/1950


    Kellett XR-8 / XR-10 ( XH-8 / XH-10 ) (USA) A twin engined developed for the USAF, held 10 passengers.
    Kellett XH-8 XH-10 Helicopters 1945/1950


    1948

    Sud-Est SE 3101 / 3110 (France) The ancestors of Aerospatiale Alouettes

    HERC Jov-3 : (USA) Designed by Mr. Jovanovich, before he moved to McCulloch
    Jov 3 Helicopters 1945/1950


    Robert Stierlin (Switzerland)

    Yakovlev Yak-100: (USSR)

    August : Mil Mi-1 Hare First helicopter to enter series production in the Soviet Union.

    October 5 : Westland WS-51 Dragonfly (UK)

    Baumgartl: (Brazil) After WWII, the austrian engineer Paul Baumgartl moves to Brazil where he designed and built the PB-60 (1948), PB-63 (1953) and PB-64 helicopters.

    Baumgartl helicopter



    1949

    Hiller 360: First civilian helicopter to cross the United States

    Breguet G.11E: (France)

    April 6 : Sikorsky S-51 HO3S-1G: US Coast Guard H035-l completed the longest unescorted helicopter ferry flight on record. The trip from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Port Angeles, Washington, via San Diego, California, a distance of 3,750 miles, took 10 1/2 days to complete and involved a total flight time of 57.6 hours.

    1950s: Continue






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