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The Platt-LePage Aircraft Company was a manufacturer of aircraft for the armed forces of the United States of America. Based in
Eddystone, Pennsylvania Eddystone is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,410 at the 2010 census. History The area at the mouth of Ridley Creek was first called "Tequirassy" by Native Americans. The land was owned by Olof Persson Stille, ...
, the company produced the first helicopter to be officially acquired by the
United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
.


Establishment

Wynn Laurence LePage 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 A ...
, 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
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s. 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 Grover Cleveland Loening (September 12, 1888 – February 29, 1976) was an American aircraft manufacturer. Biography Loening was born in Bremen, in what was then Imperial Germany, on September 12, 1888, while his American-born father was station ...
as a consultant and helicopter enthusiast
Frank Piasecki Frank Nicolas Piasecki ( ; ; October 24, 1919 – February 11, 2008) was an American engineer and helicopter aviation pioneer. Piasecki pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs and created the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using ...
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 Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...
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 Helicopter Air Transport Incorporated (HAT) was formed in New Jersey, United States, to exploit the helicopters which were developed during World War II. It was the world's first commercial helicopter operator. Origins The company was formed i ...
, 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 The Grumman G-44 Widgeon is a small, five-person, twin-engined, amphibious aircraft. It was designated J4F by the United States Navy and Coast Guard and OA-14 by the United States Army Air Corps and United States Army Air Forces. Design and deve ...
fuselage. In addition, a design for a
tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a trans ...
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 The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 6, 1939, by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom I ...
, 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 The McDonnell XHJH Whirlaway, aka McDonnell Model 65, was a 1940s American experimental transverse-rotor helicopter designed and built by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation for the United States Navy and was the largest helicopter at the time, as we ...
.Pattillo 2000, p.191.


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * {{Authority control 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