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NEWS BUREAU
GENERAL [[logo]]GE[[/logo]] ELECTRIC                 1250-61-4
3325 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles 5, California
DUnkirk 1-3641

ROBERT H. JONES

(5-31-61)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OAKLAND, CALIF., May 31 -- More power per pound of engine than any other production turboshaft is produced by the CT58 gas turbine which today will lift San Francisco & Oakland Airlines' new S-62 turbocopter on its inaugural flight.

Weighing only 299 pounds and measuring 55 inches long, the General Electric CT58 turboshaft engine will allow the 10 passenger Sikorsky S-62 to cruise at speeds up to 100 miles per hour.

Two of the same CT58 turbine powerplants two weeks ago powered a Sikorsky HSS-2 Navy turbocopter to a new world's speed record of over 190 miles per hour.

According to M. F. Bagan, President of San Francisco-Oakland Helicopter Airlines, the new turbocopter will be able to make runs from the Ferry Building Heliport downtown to San Francisco International Airport in eight minutes and from downtown San Francisco to downtown Oakland in five minutes.

E. V. Claxton, manager of GE's CT58 Engine Project, said CT58 engines have logged over 50,000 hours of operation and that the figure should double by the end of 1961.

In further substantiating the engines reliability, Claxton said that the CT58 has completed over 2000 hours of endurance running without overhaul and that test reports show the engine can operate satisfactorily even after ingesting sand, dust, hailstones and water.

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