Platt-LePage Aircraft

The Platt-LePage Aircraft Company was a manufacturer of aircraft for the armed forces of the United States of America. Based in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, the company produced the first helicopter to be officially acquired by the United States Army Air Forces.

Establishment

Wynn Laurence LePage, a British Aeronautical Engineer living in Pennsylvania, who co-founded the Platt-LePage Aircraft Company in partnership with Haviland Hull Platt, the company's intended purpose being the manufacture of helicopters. LePage, impressed by the performance of the German Focke-Wulf Fa 61,Francillon 1990, p.48. acquired the manufacturing rights to the aircraft.Raines 2002, p.42.

Two early helicopter prototypes developed by the company failed to meet with any success;Charnov 2003, pp.171. however in 1940, under the terms of the Dorsey-Logan Act,Leishman 2006, p715. Platt-Lepage was declared the winner of a competition to supply the Army with its first helicopter.

First Army helicopter

Having employed designer Grover Loening as a consultant and helicopter enthusiast Frank Piasecki employed as a junior engineer, Platt-Lepage set to work developing the helicopter, using a similar rotor arrangement to that of the Fa 61. The aircraft, designated XR-1, flew three months behind schedule in 1941.Francillon 1990, p.50.

The XR-1 suffered from significant teething troubles, including control difficulties, vibration, and resonance issues, and financial difficulties at Platt-LePage caused significant delays in resolving the aircraft's problems. Despite this, the USAAF still believed the XR-1 would prove successful, however the improved XR-1A, flying for the first time in 1943, proved little better than its predecessor, and was damaged in an accident in early 1944.

With Piasecki having left the company, the XR-1's flight testing dragged on through 1944. The Army Air Forces, spurred by Congressional accusations of favoritism towards Vought-Sikorsky, ordered seven YR-1A service-test helicopters. Despite this, Sikorsky's R-4 was proving far superior to the Platt-LePage aircraft, having successfully passed its flight trials and already entering operational service with the Army. Therefore, in early 1945 the Army elected to cancel its contracts with Platt-LePage.

Disestablishment

The repaired XR-1A was purchased by Helicopter Air Transport, which intended to operate it for commercial purposesFrancillon 1990, p.51. as part of a fleet of 40 helicopters. The company had also developed a number of other concepts for helicopters, including the PL-11, an improved civilian version of the XR-1A; the PL-12, a four-passenger variant of the PL-11; and the PL-14, a twin-rotor helicopter based on a Grumman Widgeon fuselage. In addition, a design for a tiltrotor airliner was developed by the company.

However, the cancellation of the company's Army contracts had removed Platt-LePage's primary source of income, and without sufficient funds to continue operating, the company closed its doors on January 13, 1947. McDonnell Aircraft, which had acquired part of the company in 1942, and a larger share in 1944, purchased the rights to the remainder of the company's intellectual property,Pattillo 2000, p.189. including the design for the PL-9, a twin-engine helicopter that McDonnell would develop into the XHJD Whirlaway.Pattillo 2000, p.191.

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Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States
Defunct helicopter manufacturers of the United States
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1938
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1947
Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania
American companies established in 1938
American companies disestablished in 1947