egg beater at war

[airnutz]

The XR-1 was the U. S. Army's second helicopter - anyone want to guess what was the first and when it flew?

Randy

That would be the de Bothezat helicopter which flew in 1922, Randy.
www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bothezat.php

[tulsaboy]

Randy-

Yes, it's the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Gregory was actually a Tulsan, thus the connection. One of our volunteers is going through it right now, assigning accession numbers and storing it in acid-free boxes etc. If you wanted to see it now, you'd be welcome. You'd be sitting in my office to go through it! A couple of other WIX-ers have come to say hi and to research a little, and you'd be welcome as well. There are some pretty neat things in the collection. I'll have to get a shot of a huge oil painting he had painted of himself flying one of the early helicoptors.

Just let me know if you want to come.

kevin

[warbird1]

Nice pictures. This reminds me of two questions:

1) Does anybody remember that made for t.v. movie from Hollywood about the Helicopters in the CBI doing rescue missions? Anyone see it and remember the name? It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember it was pretty hokey and unrealistic, even for an 80's flick.

2) Whatever happened to that R-4 that the CAF had years ago? Where is it now?

Thanks.

[Randy Wilson]

Close enought - airnutz is the winner of the non-pony! The date was December 18th, 1922 when the de Bothezat helicopter made history. Here are a couple of pictures from the book mentioned above.



Certainly a long way from a Huey but it flew. I love the caption on the lower photo! All the best.

Randy

[Obergrafeter]

I wonder about the CAF R-4 also. I know they could never find the right engine for it, but a "wrong" one for static would be OK.

[Randy Wilson]

I think that the CAF R-4 was assigned to a CAF unit or group in the El Paso area back in the 1990s. I seem to remember that instead of the rather rare Warner R-550 engine of 185hp it had something like a Continental R-670 or similar mounted but not really "connected" - I could be wrong on that. A big issue was the condition of the wood and fabric blades, I think, in terms of ever being restored to flying status, even if rebuilt.

I recall that eventually some of the parts were returned to CAF HQ but I really don't know the final status of them or the rest of the story. Others may have more info.

Randy

[Obergrafeter]

See what you can find out Randy. I don't think a static R4 would be out of place. We could hang it up next to the TG3A. You remember how hard it was to find the proper engine for that one!

[Jerry O'Neill]

Nice pictures. This reminds me of two questions:

1) Does anybody remember that made for t.v. movie from Hollywood about the Helicopters in the CBI doing rescue missions? Anyone see it and remember the name? It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember it was pretty hokey and unrealistic, even for an 80's flick.

2) Whatever happened to that R-4 that the CAF had years ago? Where is it now?

Thanks.

I can't place that TV show, but "Whirlybirds" was a TV show in 1957 and had over 100 episodes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050077/plotsummary
Jerry

[warbird1]

Nice pictures. This reminds me of two questions:

1) Does anybody remember that made for t.v. movie from Hollywood about the Helicopters in the CBI doing rescue missions? Anyone see it and remember the name? It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember it was pretty hokey and unrealistic, even for an 80's flick.

2) Whatever happened to that R-4 that the CAF had years ago? Where is it now?

Thanks.

I can't place that TV show, but "Whirlybirds" was a TV show in 1957 and had over 100 episodes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050077/plotsummary
Jerry

Nope, that definitely wasn't it. The show I remember was on either in the 70's or 80's and it was in color. As I recall, it was a one-off, made for t.v. movie.

[airnutz]

Nice pictures. This reminds me of two questions:

1) Does anybody remember that made for t.v. movie from Hollywood about the Helicopters in the CBI doing rescue missions? Anyone see it and remember the name? It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember it was pretty hokey and unrealistic, even for an 80's flick.

Yeah..I vaguely remember that 5-fingered gagger. It was set in the ETO tho. You had me stumped with
the CBI location until I read a Londoners review of the movie on IMDB. The movie was a pilot for a
stillborn t.v. series, "The Secret War of Jackie's Girls"(1980). Wimmen helicopter pilots embarking on
missions of daring do in the ETO. There are a coupla clips available on YouTube, but nothing with
helicopters in it that I've seen. Apparently Benmurphyfan is more concerned with feeding
her(? ) Ben Murphy fix. Sort of a chic version of Baa Baa Black Sheep meets Charlies Angels.

No pix but a little writeup on this rotorwing film site..
www.rotaryaction.com/s.html

The Londoners opinion..
www.imdb.com/title/tt0081472/#comment

I wonder what the open cockpit mutation of the venerable Bell 47 or Hiller looked like?

[ArtS]

maybe the open cockpit Bell looked like this:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DN

Regards,

Art S.

[ArtS]

Or this:

http://www.aviastar.org/foto/gallery/bell/bell_30-3.jpg

[ArtS]

Here are early,open Bell 47s:

http://www.aviastar.org/foto/gallery/bell/bell_47d.jpg

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_47b-3.php

[airnutz]

maybe the open cockpit Bell looked like this:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DN

Regards,

Art S.

Not hokey enough for Hollyweed .

[Platt-LePage]

Platt-LePage XR-1 in flight with Frank Gregory at the controls.


From Anything a Horse Can Do, The Story of the Helicopter by Colonel H. F. Gregory, 1944. The XR-1 was the U. S. Army's second helicopter - anyone want to guess what was the first and when it flew? No ponies - sorry. Yes, the answer is in the book

If you are interested in the early history of U.S. military helicopters, this is a very interesting book. Gregory was a test pilot for the R-4 and other early helicopters for the Army. It was published in 1944 so it doesn't cover much if any operational use during WWII but does have some interesting thoughts on the future of the helicopter seen from that time.

Randy

Actually that photo does not have Frank Gregory at the controls, it is an early hover test with the horizontal stabilizer removed.
The pilot in the photo is Lou Leavitt, the very problematic test pilot for Platt-LePage Aircraft.
At the time that series of photos were taken, Frank Gregory had yet to fly the XR-1.

Here is another shot from the same group of original photos: