UFO

The Cessna Skyhook Helicopter

Best known for building fixed-wing aircraft since 1927, Cessna took a little known mid-century foray into the world of helicopter production

By Micah Cianpa

Yes, Cessna did build a helicopter—a total of 50 or so before it was all over.

The Cessna helicopter project began in 1952, when Cessna bought out the Seibel Helicopter Company and the services of Charlie Seibel. In a memoir of his time as a young engineer with Cessna, Steve Remington of Collect Air writes, “Charlie Seibel was the Cessna helicopter program.” Remington describes Seibel as, “Part genius and part clown, with a very affable nature, but demanding, with seemingly unbounded energy and enthusiasm.”

While working for Bell in 1943, Charlie Seibel began designing his own light helicopter with fellow Bell employee Dick Ledwin, in the attic of the duplex where Seibel lived. In 1946, Seibel left Bell and moved his family back home to Wichita, Kan., where he went to work for Boeing. With the help of his friend “Red” Lubben, another former employee of Bell, Seibel continued work on what would become the S-3 helicopter in his basement, with Dick Ledwin machining parts back in New York.

After initial testing with a tethered scale model, the S-3 made its first hovering flight in September 1947. The simplified rotor head used a stack of stainless steel angles instead of bearings to carry centrifugal load and absorb the twisting of blade pitch control. The first S-3 also used a simplified “cyclic” that shifted the center of gravity by moving a section of the cabin. The helicopter was designed to move in the direction of the weight shift, as opposed to the standard cyclic control tilting the rotor disc by changing the pitch of the individual blades during each cycle of rotation. Eventually, the weight shift arrangement was abandoned due to ineffectiveness, particularly against dynamic rollover. Charlie Seibel flew the first eight hours of testing himself, with no previous experience as a pilot.

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Future Flight

Drone Wars: A look at the modern UAV

Recent advancements in technology have cemented the unmanned aircraft’s role in military aviation

By Jack Ferguson

Like a squadron of Martian invaders, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are quietly beginning their quest to take over Earth’s skies. Often overlooked by pilots and perhaps feared, because we don’t get to fly them from an airborne seat, UAV’s are rapidly pushing aviation boundaries. Popping up like dandelions in a thousand different configurations and capabilities, modern UAVs do some pretty cool stuff and have the potential to advance traditional aviation as a consequence.

Technically defined as a powered, unmanned aircraft capable of sustainable, controlled level flight using aerodynamic forces and recoverable after each flight, the first UAVs were developed in the early 1900’s as WWI forced some creative military thinking. Full-scale and smaller remote controlled aircraft capable of delivering weapon packages were actually developed and flying in the 1920s although with limited action. Post WWI development decayed as the military requirement eased and it wasn’t until the 1940s, as WWII progressed that UAV research and development again heated up.

A number of round-trip capable aircraft were developed and used primarily as target practice drones for young anti-aircraft gunners (now that sounds fun). These full-scale radio controlled planes were typically launched via slingshot and landed unassisted or with the aid of parachutes, if they weren’t completely torn up after a practice session. Of course, the most famous UAV of the time was the German VI flying bomb, although its one-way status would qualify it as a missile these days. The “buzz bomb” employed a relatively sophisticated autopilot system and was programmed to detonate roughly 150 miles from launch sites on the French coast.

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Adventure

Fighter Pilot for a Day

Bored with your Cessna 172? Bring the excitement back into your flying with Air Combat USA

By Gates L. Scott

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to engage in a full-speed dogfight? Ever craved the gut-wrenching thrill of pulling G’s? Well, Air Combat USA gives you the chance to experience the exhilaration of flying a fighter jet firsthand, plant yourself in the middle of the TOP GUN experience and sharpen your skills as a pilot.

The original civilian dog-fighting school, Air Combat USA was the first to put civilians in the cockpit for the ultimate in speed and maneuver training. With more than 38,000 guest pilots flown over a span of 20 years, it is the largest and most recognized air combat school in the world. As the leader in the industry, this relatively unknown outfit works hand-in-hand with the Federal Aviation Administration and other governing agencies to define the parameters and establish safety guidelines used to regulate the air combat training industry.

The instructors’ credentials are enviable. These fighter pilots—who have flown actual combat missions in Vietnam and Desert Storm—are fully qualified Air Combat Tactics Instructors teaching Basic Flight Maneuvers and the art of air-to-air combat, exactly as it is taught in the United States military. The mission of Air Combat USA is to provide an extraordinary fighter pilot experience and set the standard for program design and execution, offering a flight experience that you can’t find anywhere else. Captain Mike Blackstone, founder and president of Air Combat USA, developed and patented a tracking system that verifies air-to-air “kills” and equipped each aircraft with cameras that record the entire experience for playback after each engagement. “Everything is real … except the bullets,” Blackstone says.

For more information see AirCombatUSA.com

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Ecosystem

Compiled by Jack Ferguson

The Sikorsky X2 Flies

After four-plus years of development, Sikorsky Aircraft recently test flew its X2 Technology Demonstrator helicopter. The twin-bladed counter-rotating system coupled with a traditional push prop at rear should allow the ship to cruise around 250 knots and maintain helicopter-like flight characteristics close to the ground, such as the ability to hover and pivot around the ship’s vertical access. While still a long way off from actual production, the technology holds tremendous promise.

AI for Glider Pilots

Roke Manor Research, a British aerospace engineering firm, is working on a system that will give glider pilots the ability to virtually see rising air currents or thermals based on ground temps, wind speed, cloud conditions and other weather data. The on-board system will crunch through these real time data feeds to generate a flight path that offers the best chance of finding rising air and, of course, avoiding downdrafts. While initially designed for glider pilots, it could be used by powered aircraft to increase endurance and avoid unsafe weather conditions.

The Light Sport of Blimps

It may not be a dream for many of us, but for a few the idea of owning a blimp to cruise around the neighborhood equates to the ultimate in personal transportation. Massachusetts-based SkyYacht (what a wonderful name!) is working to develop a personal blimp that uses good old hot air rather than helium to create lift. With a rigid structure that can easily be set up, torn down and transported much like a hot air balloon, the SkyYacht has the potential to provide an ideal mix of balloon and blimp characteristics with the ability to quietly hover while still being able to control its flight path. The backyard blimp for millions may be a stretch, but it could certainly be used for scientific field work and other commercial applications.

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Myths of Aviation

Safety Check

Myth: General aviation is a risky endeavor

Reality: It is one of the safest modes of transportation in the United States

By Brendan Harrington

The idea of flying a small aircraft, as pilot or passenger, is quite daunting to many people. It seems significantly more dangerous, somehow, than flying a commercial airliner and certainly more risky than driving a car across town. There are just too many unknowns. In a commercial flight, people are sheltered in a massive jumbo jet flown by seasoned and responsible professionals, protected from the elements with a drink in hand, oblivious to the reality of soaring at 30,000 feet. Riding in a car is familiar, something everyone does everyday. What’s more, it’s on the ground.

General aviation flights, however, are unfamiliar to the general public. To most people, a small plane seems unnecessarily dangerous, susceptible to weather conditions or engine failures. They hear stories about this celebrity or that meeting their doom in a private jet. And, most frighteningly, they can see out the window ... they can see the ground. Yikes.

The reality, however, is that general aviation is a very safe way to travel. Pilots and planes are held to the same rigorous standards as commercial aviators and accidents of any kind are extremely rare. So, if you are considering attaining a pilot license, or you love someone who is attaining their pilot license, or you simply tend to travel by way of private plane, take comfort. General aviation is safe.

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Aerodynamics

Can New “Helicraft” Beat an Old Villain?

Engineers continue to puzzle a familiar question in the quest for a better helicopter

By Jack Ferguson

It’s a simple aerodynamic phenomenon: One that has Bell and Boeing, Sikorsky and newly acquired Schweizer, in a multi-billion-dollar chess match to solve an old quandary. It’s the reason rotor-wing aircraft, with all of their amazing capabilities, still have short legs and small lungs—niche players good for going point to point within a couple hundred nautical miles, landing in small spaces and sometimes carrying things on ropes. Termed Dissymmetry of Lift, this aerodynamic fact of life for helicopters cripples forward speed potential and requires simple yet ingenious engineering to deal with, at most any pace.

For more than 60 years—since the mid 1940’s when the first Bell 47 was officially certified—helicopters have changed very little, at least in an aerodynamic sense. It’s only in the last decade that we’ve begun to see serious advances that will change the role of helicopters across all sectors and slowly blur the line between rotor-wing aircraft and their fixed-wing brethren. And, at the end of the day, it all comes back to dealing with one simple issue: Dissymmetry of Lift.

Flapping Along

One of the first aerodynamic ground lessons all new heli pilots are forced to sit through is “Dissymmetry of Lift.” Although the full lesson should probably be titled “Dissymmetry of lift: Its unfortunate consequences and why you’ll never make as much as your buddy who flies airplanes.” (Since we’ll be using the term Dissymmetry of Lift quite a bit in this story, let’s just call it DL). When a helicopter is sitting in a no-wind hover, each rotor blade, as it spins around the rotor hub “feels” the exact same airflow velocity or wind as the blades in front and behind. In the hover, that velocity is the speed of the blades themselves, around 200 to 400 knots depending on helicopter type, rotor RPM, blade length, etc. Keep in mind that the tip of each blade is traveling at a much higher velocity than the blade’s root as each tip must travel a greater distance each time around making the 200 to 400 knots an average of the differing velocities felt across the entire blade.

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Aviate

There we were...

Share the flying adventure with the entire family

By Dan Crowe

If you hang around your local airport for any length of time, you will no-doubt hear many hair-raising stories told by dashing daredevils who have braved the elements at altitude and lived to tell their story. You will notice, as well, that all these stories have certain similar elements. But, inevitably, they start the same way. “There we were...”

I say “we” instead of “I” intentionally. If it weren’t for the person in the right seat, many of these stories would never get told. How many times has your faithful passenger pointed out the window and announced, “TRAFFIC!” while you were looking at a chart or playing with the GPS or doing any of the 100 other things that we all do, when we should be flying the plane and looking outside.

Like so many things that make our lives more enjoyable, the thrill of getting there in a private airplane can—and should—be a family affair. Who is that person in your right seat anyway? If it’s your spouse, is he or she enjoying the flight as much as you are? Are they helping with the flying duties, navigating, communicating or maybe even aviating? Or are they next to you sleeping, wishing only that this flight—just like the 100 before it—were over? Maybe it is a beautiful Saturday, and you want to go find that $100 hamburger (I know it’s more than that now days, but you get the point). Is your spouse less than enthusiastic? Maybe even a little nervous?.

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Navigate

The Sport Pilot Medical

Pilots denied full medical clearance can still fly their LSA’s

By Brad Irwin

Ever wonder what you would do if you couldn’t pass your medical? This is a problem that more and more pilots are facing each year as the pilot population ages. You might not be flying as much now as you once did, but you still want the ability to fly when it suits you and take to the skies on a beautiful day with calm winds. Perhaps the Sport Pilot option is just the ticket.

According to FAA statistics, over the past three years the number of denials of third-class airman medical certificates has ranged from approximately 2,000 to 2,500 per year based on approximately 135,000 to 140,000 applications. It’s true that most of these denials were based on the applicants’ failure to provide sufficient information to the FAA, however, a growing number of pilots have also been denied medical certificates due to personal medical conditions. While these medical conditions may prevent the pilot from obtaining a third-class medical certificate or higher, they would not prevent the pilot from obtaining a U.S. driver’s license and this is all that may be required for some pilots under the Sport Pilot Rule.

This means that, if you have a recreational pilot certificate or higher, and a current biennial flight review, you can fly a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) without a medical certificate—provided you have a valid U.S. driver’s license and you haven’t been denied a medical certificate.

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Next Generation

The Next Generation: Instilling the romance of aviation

Making flying fun is the key to inspiring the youth to fly

By Heather Robillard

I’m one of those people. You know, the kind who has 15 aviation magazine subscriptions just to make it through the winter. New England winters can be pretty harsh and sometimes the most you see of your winged friend, strapped tightly to the tarmac, is a quick visit to scrape the snow off and maybe give her a run-up for good measure. Of course on those rare, perfectly clear, cool, smooth days the effort of warming the engine and cabin is rewarded with a breathtaking flight.

As winter approaches again, I anticipate those seven-degree days when I shove the kids out of the car, into the freezing air and onto the bus. Those are the days when the sky’s a blissful blue, no clouds and a light breeze. Is it possible for weather to taunt a pilot? Stuck inside working on such a day is traumatic enough to make any pilot grab the calculator and punch the numbers through again and again, wondering out loud, “if we sold the house and built an insulated hangar we could probably live in the hangar … right?”

And so, stuck inside, I turn to my magazines for solace. I find two trends common among all of them. One, of course, is the FAA and the ongoing user fee controversy. Thank goodness for Phil Boyer and Tom Poberezny who tirelessly get up again and again to charge through the maze that is Washington. The ongoing user fee battle always brings to mind that scene in Braveheart when Mel Gibson screams that blood-curdling scream and charges into battle with war paint on his face and waves of pilots … errr ... warriors behind him.

For more information visit www.andysairplanes.com

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Site Picture

Soucy's and Teresa Stokes Wingwalking Act.

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Bell 407 approaches the Spanish Navy's Mendez Nunez 50 miles off the coast of San Diego.

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Four CJ-6 Nanchang aircraft flying over Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, WI.

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Travel

The Atlantic Crossing

Channeling Lindbergh in a Socata TBM 850

Story and photos by Jeff Berlin

In 1908, Orville Wright said, “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.” A scant 19 years later, Charles Lindbergh proved him wrong. Lindbergh’s was an unbelievable achievement, and for some pilots the allure of an Atlantic crossing is still an irresistible siren’s call. Nevertheless, crossing “The Pond” on one’s own is not to be taken lightly, especially in a single-engine aircraft, and Socata’s TBM 850 turboprop is one of the very few singles I’d even consider for such a voyage.

Back in 1933, Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways contracted Charles Lindbergh to survey the North Atlantic for viable air routes and to promote air travel. From Bowery Bay, next to LaGuardia Airport’s art deco Marine Air Terminal, he and Anne Morrow Lindbergh took off in a Lockheed Sirius on an odyssey that took them to the coast of Labrador and then to Greenland, Iceland, and beyond.

Of this voyage, Lindbergh wrote in a letter to Trippe, “Planes used on a northern transatlantic route must have reliability, plenty of range, and high speed. It is essential to eliminate the possibility of forced landings due to engine failure. A great deal of flying would have to be done over low fog covering rough ice and probably over storm areas … I believe that a northern transatlantic regular service should not be contemplated with planes that are not capable of flying nonstop from the western side of the Greenland ice cap to Iceland, if necessary.”

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