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Does the name Pitcairn ring a bell outside discussions of Pittsburgh or Capt. Bligh?
That proposal was right at the heyday of the autogiro (not a typo) which at the time was a valid competitor to ‘airliners’. There was quite a craze for them, in fact, as the mid-Twenties equivalent of what flying cars have been for the immediate future, five years away for the past 80-odd years or so…
The spurts of interest in tip-jet helicopters, including the Gyrodyne, are just improvements on the idea. Pity they all went the same way, for much the same reason, as free-piston engines!
Well, Pitcairn’s autogiro wouldn’t come along until 1931 or so, after those prints were published. Juan de la Cierva’s autogiro goes back to 1923 but just how common they were here in the US I don’t know. I’m sure they were known about in aviation circles.
And of course strictly speaking, autogiros aren’t helicopters, but an ingenious step along the way.
It’s what they were known for: very short positive takeoffs even in turbulent wind conditions, and very short autorotation landings. Perfect for all those Italian Futurist landing decks over railroad stations, no waiting for Sikorsky to do for rotary-wing aircraft what the Wrights did for fixed wing (e.g. make them practically flyable) and not needing huge reliable engines with complex powered control heads to run.
The Penn Station rooftop landing strip did make it to reality at Grand Central Terminal with New York Heliocopter’s regular PanAm-Building-Rooftop - Kennedy service, which I used on a few occasions. What actually put it out of business? Safety concerns? For the general population?
A good question. Maybe in the end it just didn’t pay?
Massive unprofitability, part of which was insurance, part of which was equipment. It never was safe, for much the same reason there was never dirigible service to the Empire State Building.
If I recall correctly this was one of the anticipated services for Gyrodynes, which might have been able to support the traffic to area airports (not just Kennedy).
I think a big piece of the premise was that it matched the promise of supersonic airliners being the ‘big thing’ replacing the first generation of jet transports. The last-mile savings to midtown for business travelers in a hurry were different from people with luggage dropped off on top of something requiring much navigation including long elevator rides to get to hotels and stuff. I think alternatives like the Train to the Plane were more sensible in the world that existed even by the time Concorde finally struggled into service…
Holy smoke, leave it to Mike to come up with this!
I’m glad David wasn’t on that one! https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/helicopter-flips-park-avenue-1977-article-1.2214161
Mike sent it to me, also.