Thirty Hours

Airmen were still gaping at the most dramatic proof yet that the helicopter, still strictly a military aircraft, may indeed become the duffer's joy, safe and easy to fly.

P-V Engineering Forum of Philadelphia had its sleek, 1,000-lb. helicopter (one of more than 20 such projects in the aircraft industry) really flying (see cut). Its pilot: Frank N. Piasecki, president.

Frank Piasecki had done every bit of test flying of the experimental craft. What shook airmen was that when the tests began he had a total of only 14 hours in the air, all in airplanes. When he made his first public demonstration, his flying time (both plane and helicopter) totaled only 30 hours.

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