Mr. Pentecost's Wings

Ever since Icarus, and in spite of what happened to him, men have dreamed of strapping wings on themselves and taking off like the birds. Airplanes have never completely satisfied this desire. The plane itself does the flying; the man only rides and steers. Gliders are only half the ticket.

Last week the ancient dream showed headline-hitting signs of coming true. At a Philadelphia meeting of the American Helicopter Society, Horace T. Pentecost told about the "Hoppi-copter" (see cut), which he has been developing in Seattle. It is a helicopter* stripped to essentials: little more than a seat, landing wheels and two horizontal rotors revolving in opposite directions. The power source is a 35 h.p. engine with two opposed cylinders like an outboard motor. According to Mr. Pentecost, "the required blade adjustments to render typical three dimensional helicopter flight have been coordinated into a single control handle placed conveniently in front of the operator."

Total weight (not counting Mr. Pentecost): 173 Ibs. The Hoppi-copter should "retail for little more than the better modern motorcycle." Helicopter experts would be more enthusiastic if they had seen it flying, but no performance records have been made available.

But the designers have incorporated one important safety feature. Icarus made the mistake of flying too near the sun, which melted the wax that held his wings together. The Hoppicopter's announced ceiling is a modest 12,000 ft.

* The Icarus apparatus was presumably not a helicopter with revolving wing surfaces but an ornithopter, with flapping wings.

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