The dream aircraft that takes off vertically like a helicopter, but flies horizontally like a proper airplane, is gradually coming true. Last week, at Fort Worth, Bell Aircraft Corp. showed a prototype convertiplane. It looks like an airplane, but it has two helicopter rotors projecting from nacelles on the tips of its stubby wings.
The convertiplane takes off with the rotor shafts vertical, and the rotors lift it into the air helicopter-fashion. Then the pilot tilts the rotors forward so that they begin to act like oversized airplane propellers. As the aircraft gains forward...
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