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114         HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM

arrived in United States, 1919; established Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp., Long Island, 1923; produced S-29 landplane, 1924; designed, produced S-38 twin-engine amphibian, 1927; company acquired by United Aircraft Corp., 1929; designed, produced, four-engine, S-40 flying boat, 1931, and S-42 which pioneered the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic commercial air routes, 1934; designed and flew VS-300, first successful helicopter in western hemisphere, 1939; has since designed and built military and commercial helicopters.

We could go on with the awards he has received, which would be as long as your arm. In order to not impose on him, due to the shortage of time, we are honored to have you. The committee salutes you, Mr. Sikorsky, for what you have done so consistently through a busy lifetime in the field of aviation.

You may proceed in your own way, sir. If you have a statement we would be happy to have you read it.

STATEMENT OF IGOR I. SIKORSKY, ENGINEERING CONSULTANT, SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT DIVISION, UNITED AIRCRAFT CORP.

Mr. SIKORSKY. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, it is a great privilege to be permitted to report to you on the subject of the helicopter this morning. I must state that my words would be my personal ideas and opinions and not necessarily the ideas of the United Aircraft Corp. or of the division which carries my name.

I have been connected with the helicopter development for the last 25 years, out of which for the first 18 years I had been the engineering manger of the organization which produced these machines, and I happen to have been the test pilot of the very first one which we built.

Consequently, I was able to follow up the development of the helicopter. May I say that my defending, so to speak, the helicopter, would be not because I am connected with the helicopter; it is the other way around.

I am connected with the helicopter, or I started to build it, because I was convinced of the immense potential possibility of this new vehicle of travel, which may be considered as the most universal vehicle ever known to man, because it needs no roads, obviously; no waterways, obviously; and also no airports for departure. The helicopter can obviously land any place where there is enough room for it to stand, but not everyone know that it can land on such places where there is no smooth ground at all, or where the ground is not strong enough to hold a machine.

The so-called partial landing, which means landing on thin ice, or landing on the roof which is definitely known to be not strong enough to hold the machine, has been practiced thousands of times for rescues, for a number of missions, providing it is a good helicopter with a competent pilot who can hold half of the weight, three-quarters of the weight, 95 percent of the weight with the machine, and just touch the wheels where he lands. This obviously opens a considerable amount of use which this vehicle can perform.

With respect to the present use of the helicopter, or rather the present status, the following few figures may perhaps illustrate it. 

We have a helicopter which can carry 40 people, and it is in construction for the Armed Forces. We also have a crane which did