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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM    355

The limitations of the helicopter that are due to military procurement are primarily related to excessive costs and high maintenance. Such things are traditional and apply to many more products than aircraft.

The basic need of the helicopter for more power was particularly serious with reciprocating engines. When more power was added, the weight of the heavier engine combined with the weight of the heavier transmissions, shafting, et cetera, used up most of the added lifting capacity gained from the added power. It was not until the turbine engine became available that we had a powerplant that would provide additional power without the additional penalty of weight. Turbine power was a greater breakthrough for the helicopter than for the conventional airplane.

The new generation of turbine-powered helicopters are very different vehicles from anything we have had in the past. The next generation of turbines will provide much more power for the same amount of weight which will be reflected in a still greater improvement of the next generation of helicopters. This sounds like a lot of optimistic talk of the kind that has been put out about helicopters ever since the last world war, but I don't believe it is optimistic, I honestly believe that is what we can expect for helicopters in the fairly near future.

As to the limitations imposed by military procurement, the purchase prices of the aircraft will continue unreasonably high and the maintenance costs will show very little improvement until commercial usage becomes great enough to establish a commercial market.

It is easy to imagine what would have happened to the automobile had there not been a civilian production. Under military development, the best vehicle we would have today would, in my opinion, be a poor jeep selling for some $50,000 per copy and costing a dollar per mile to operate. We certainly wouldn't have the automobile we have today.

No vehicle has ever needed developmental support so much as does the helicopter. The basic reason for this is that the helicopter is a very sophisticated mechanism. Also its inherent limitations preclude its use where the fixed wing airplane can be used. Thus the field of its application is new, requiring considerable trial and error experimenting to determine how and for what purposes it should be used. 

It is obvious to anyone that helicopter flight has a potential utility in our evolving industrialization and in our transportation system. I suppose its usefulness will eventually evolve even without help, but that will take a great deal longer and the country will be without this advantage for a considerably longer period of time.

We have many examples of governmental promotions in the past. The TVA development brought power to a large, backward section of the country and its industrial development was phenomenal. Rural electrification has advanced the production levels of our farms very greatly. The subsidized air transport system in this country brought into being a network of airlines that paid for itself many hundred times over in the Second World War alone, and today we have the best air transport system of any country in the world. There is nothing wrong in spending Federal money to aid the development of a new and potentially useful form of flight.

It is, of course, true that a fairly substantial sum of money already has been spent in Federal subsidies to the three certificated helicopter