Your Flying Flivver 63 



a minute if necessary, and maneuver to the right, left, or back- 

 ward and forward, by manipulating the center stick. You can 

 spend as much time as you need in landing, backing up, or 

 shifting sideways to park in a tight spot. 



What about weather conditions? Suppose you run into a 

 fog? Well, you can descend at a snail's pace to check your 

 location, and even use a flashlight to study road signs while 

 the helicopter hovers near the ground. If an obstruction sud- 

 denly looms up in front of you, a pull on the center stick 

 and an adjustment of the lift lever permit the helicopter 

 to climb straight up or settle straight down and avoid a 

 crash. 



If your engine quits, a clutch automatically disengages the 

 rotor blades. They continue to spin by the air pressure, like 

 the rotor of an autogiro. The spinning blades enable the craft 

 to descend safely from any altitude. It can glide in any direc- 

 tion to a desired landing space and then settle the short dis- 

 tance into it vertically. A heavy snowfall will ground planes 

 and halt motor traffic, but the helicopter can rise directly 

 from the snow and go anywhere. An amphibian helicopter, 

 equipped with rubber pontoons, can land or take off easily 

 from either water or land. 



Sikorsky's First Helicopter 



Mr. Sikorsky designed his first helicopter at Kiev, Russia, 

 in 1908. An extraordinary child-genius, and the son of a pro- 

 fessor of psychology at Kiev University, the young Russian's 

 first designs were regarded with interest and curiosity by gov- 

 ernment officials. He was encouraged to go ahead with his 

 work. But he had difficulty in obtaining the proper materials, 

 and when he had finally assembled the odd-looking craft 

 (contrived of a variety of unorthodox materials) it merely 

 flopped around like a hen with her head off. He tried again 



