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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE AIR PROGRAM 127

here who are attending these hearings. I am happy there are a large number who still remain to witness this flight. It looks like it is almost big enough to fly. 

STATEMENT OF W. PAUL THAYER, PRESIDENT, LING-TEMCO-VOUGHT AEROSPACE CORP.; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. W. J. HESSE, VICE PRESIDENT AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF VISTOL PROGRAMS AND MR. KEITH KAHLE

Mr. THAYER. We will try to keep it on the ground today, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator MONRONEY. That was a 20-mile wind when I saw that plane fly. 

Mr. THAYER. Yes, sir. 

Senator MONRONEY. It doesn't need to be absolutely still weather in order to go through its maneuvers. 

Mr. THAYER. It can actually hover in a 25-knot tailwind. 

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much the opportunity to be here today to tell you about the XC-142, which I think fully qualifies as the next generation of VTOL aircraft. 

I would like also to introduce a couple of my colleagues, if I may. Dr. W. J. Hesse, vice president and program director of VSTOL programs, and Mr. Keith Kahle, who as you know, is the founder and former president of Central Airlines, a successful local service airline operating in the Southwest and Midwest. Due to his long "practical" experience in short haul transportation, we at Ling-Temco-Vought have sought his practical advice and he is now with our company. 

Senator MONRONEY. If he does as well with this STOL and VTOL as he did with the good old DC-3's on Central Airlines, and even before that with the Bonanzas that he flew when he originated Central Airlines, he will have a new industry going throughout Texas and Oklahoma. 

Mr. THAYER. That could very well happen. 

Senator MONRONEY. He has many friends throughout the aircraft industry who wish him well. 

Mr. THAYER. The way he is going, he may have my job in a couple of years. 

The model that you see to my right is a 10th scale working model of the XC-142. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I will go by the side of the model and point out what I consider to be some of the more interesting features of the airplane. The airplane, as you see it is designed with a gross weight of 37,500 pounds, and that is with 8,000 pounds of payload. The wing tilts through a total angle of 100 degrees from the horizontal which allows it to pass the 90-degree point and hover in a 25-knot tailwind. 

The engines are the T-64 General Electric engine, and we are most pleased and satisfied with their performance to date. Each engine develops about 3,000 horsepower, a little over spec, and weighs only a little over 700 pounds. By comparison, an automobile engine weighs about half that and develops about one-fifth of the power. 

There are several unusual features about the airplane which makes it different from the helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft. As the wing