Word: vertol
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...commercial use has climbed from 936 in 1960 to 2,390 today, the main lift in the industry's fortunes has come from Viet Nam. The Defense Department last year took 80% of the $875 million output of the seven major producers: Textron's Bell Helicopter, Boeing-Vertol, United Aircraft's Sikorsky Division, Kaman, Hughes Tool, Fairchild-Hiller and Brantly, which was acquired last week by Lear Jet Corp. This year the Pentagon will spend $1.3 billion for 3,156 choppers, absorb 90% of U.S. production...
...Paddies. Considering the exploits of the 1,800 copters already in Viet Nam, it is no wonder. Such choppers as Bell's ubiquitous UH-1B Huey and Vertol's 44-passenger Chinook are able not only to harry the elusive enemy with rocket and strafing attacks but to carry foot soldiers into battle at 150 m.p.h., eliminating bone-wearying marches through flooded paddies and jungles. Four $2,000,000 Sikorsky CH54A Skycranes, which look gawky but can haul 87 men or a field hospital under their bellies, have so far retrieved 100 downed aircraft-$37 million worth...
...supply runs, rescue missions and reconnaissance. Success in war is also producing spectacular results for the $900 million-a-year helicopter industry. With the increasing U.S. commitment in Viet Nam the Pentagon this year has ordered an additional $600 million worth of helicopters from Bell, Hughes Tool and Boeing-Vertol, which are (along with Sikorsky) the leaders of the industry...
...which provides more power than pistons and can fly about four times longer without an overhaul. The most common helicopter in Viet Nam up to now has been the workhorse Huey (the nickname for Bell's UH-1B), but the trend today is toward larger, more powerful craft. Vertol's 44-passenger, turbine-powered Chinook has already gone into service, and the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) is using Sikorsky's turbine-powered CH-54As-or Skycranes-which can carry 87 men or six Jeeps. Because its Hueys were being hit by groundfire, Bell developed an armor-plated...
...industry's eleven companies are also working on some major innovations. Lockheed is experimenting with an odd-looking, stub-winged plane that takes off as a helicopter with rotors spinning overhead, folds the rotors into its body, then flies on at speeds of up to 500 m.p.h. Vertol is designing a tilt-winged aircraft that also lifts off as a copter, with its wings in a vertical position, then speeds forward as the wings are tilted horizontally and propellers take over to pull it along. Hughes's experimental XV-9A shoots hot gases out of rotor-tip vents...