SKYWAYS WITHOUT RUNWAYS

about midnight on a very hot July night the world was startled to learn about a sea disaster collision between the Italian liner andread dor and the Swedish motorship Stockholm the overtones of holiday gave way to the quick pace of emergency of rescue part of the scene of heroism and Rescue was the distinctive shape of the helicopter which made its unique contribution in time of trouble first when we were copter lifting wounded in Korea and which has since become part of everyday [Music] life nearly a year before the dorya disaster two hurricanes struck tampo Mexico in 11 10-day period the streets became torrents and the people did not know whether to flee or where or to in quiet resignation for disaster to strike here too the shape of a verol was a sign of Hope in the sky they had come from Pensacola on the aircraft carrier sipan and were led by Commander RC laf what they and the Navy did in tampo that week was an example of what America can achieve abroad when it mobilizes its machines and disposes them with its heart affectionately called lethiers retrievers the helicopters flew a total of almost a th000 hours dro dropping food to the stranded lifting the threatened evacuating people from areas where foundations were crumbling before the Swift Waters where escape on foot was impossible and by both too hazardous to try they delivered babies and brought typhoid shots and truly earned a well done they saved a city and today they are remembered in prayers in a far corner of a foreign country [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] a helicopter is delivered [Music] [Music] behind the veral helicopter Feats the rescues the multitude of service and civilian accomplishments some glamorous some work a day lies the full strength and complexity of a modern industrial organization an operation fully based on research and planning from the huge plant of the verall aircraft Corporation in Morton Pennsylvania to The Peasant family awaiting rescue on a Mexican Hilltop is a straight line but it is a long one the idea is not enough giant machine skilled men long hours a well planned organization each plays its part in this successful blending of precision and high quota production a press accurate enough to make parts for a good watch and powerful enough to form steel is needed to shape parts for a copter and as ideas change and they change and grow fast in the aircraft business production methods and capacities must be maintained at a constant and often increasing [Music] level the techniques of the assembly line have been brought into play by the tremendous and great growing demand subassembly lines work on sections of the craft speeding them carefully down the line to the points where they meet other sections speed was always possible so was Precision both together took a little [Music] doing final assembly the front section is in place the tail section brought to it by conveyor [Music] this is the daily scene at the verol plant the widespread facilities the system of manufacturing operation the air of a job understood leading to a job done all over the plant the same process in all its stages moves in the same direction [Music] the instrument console is installed the key not only to the operation of The Craft but to its unique Mobility the quality which has earned it its place in our defense organization our civil transportation and those of our friends and allies like the instrument console the transmission and Road head unit is time to reach the fuselage at the point of complete [Music] assembly included in this job of putting a craft together were not only the shell and the rotors and engine but the controls a drive system auxiliary fuel tanks electronic equipment for communication and navigation and everything else a modern flying machine needs [Music] the French are among foreign governments using vertol aircraft elsewhere in the plant a special organization to test and analyze each part of each helicopter before it's released data processing machines and computers solve copter problems before they are met in the air you can't assume it will be all right now is the time to test in safety for safety for performance for reliability each rotor blade is put through stresses far beyond those it will ever meet in use and its action under stress not only observed but analyzed electronically gearboxes are tested under simulated flight conditions before they are [Music] installed and finally on the Whirl Tower the rotor blades are put through their Paces to check balance a tracking flag is raised just to touch the whirling blades if the marks they leave are close together and equally spaced the blade assembly has [Music] passed assembled and tested and just about ready to go a brand new veral helicopter the achievement of a group an aggregation of 5,000 people who spend their working hours bringing their individual contribution to the final [Music] product for so many people there must in turn be machines to make sure that the abilities of each are effectively used to make sure every man who worked is [Music] paid this is Operation alert an exercise in what we hope will never happen a grim game in case of nuclear attack what happens in Washington where the officials are who must lead and organiz in case of the unthinkable emergency especially what happens to the military leaders who must arrange for defense and Lead Counterattack what happens is they must disperse for if they perish together we are all lost operation alert dispersed them by helicopter to special Hideaway command posts so organized that if one is eliminated others will take over Army and Air Force verls took part working according to a plan set down long before operating in foul weather taking the indispensable men to the safe places then acting as corers among those places Army generals moved out on one side of the Pentagon Air Force generals moved out on another this was the second time for operation alert the second successive year in which veral helicopters carried some of the nation's top generals Admirals and high Civ cilian officials of the defense [Music] department the hurricane named Janet in tampo the operation named Alert in Washington the foreign disaster the threat the need for Readiness in our own capital and the same shape dominates the skies we have come a long way from the helicopter as a romantic toy a far-off legend no one stops to think anymore about the craft which can fly where no others can land where no others can do what before had been impossible it goes over it goes around it hovers it was no surprise that the officials all got where they were going in the right amount of time tested their installations to see that they would work and came back that much more assured that we were ready a Texas Tower Readiness is many things here's another a radar Dome on stilts off in the ocean about 100 Mil east of New England a full line of Texas towers is now in construction along our eastern coast with radar ranges overlapping for a solid wall of warning out to seea between the tower in the mainland there is one method of travel the vertol helicopter here the h21 proves its reliability summer and winter in all kinds of weather it can hop over the rough North Atlantic Waters and bring new Crews and food and portable radios and books service equipment and mail call Airmen who man these towers are limited to A month's duty at a time they must get back but first their relief Crews must come out this is how they do it [Applause] the Texas tower system extends our defensive air Effectiveness and therefore our safety against enemy Air Attack 200 Mi further Eastward building the towers was a prodigious job but it would have counted for very little without getting the men out there to man [Music] them on a Mountaintop in New England the military has a research installation whose work is marked top secret here again the duty is hazardous and the life of the men isolated the terrain is impassible and snow blows in the high winds of almost all year round we are now 4,000 ft up the temperature 47° below Z but verls can fly in temperatures as low as 65° below 0 once again the helicopter makes it up the mountain carrying incredible loads inside its airliner cabin or slung beneath its Hull able to fly under the most turbulent air conditions encountered on the mountain what could have taken a week has taken a few hours and the copter takes off to return to the foot of the mountain and to go on a similar Mission another day soon far in the trackless wastes of Northern Canada we're building something called the D line a distant early warning system of radar installations a frontier of alertness stretched out across the top of the continent this verall came in an Air Force transport and is put together together right out on the air strip in the shadow of the plane which brought it our men are at radar stations scattered along the Arctic Circle each isolated in the wilderness this is how each is connected to the other [Music] radar equipment created and ready to move the copter painted in the distinctive red of our Air Force's Arctic air command moves first [Music] [Applause] the crate weighs almost 1 and A2 tons and inside is a delicate mechanism the huge weight must be moved without jarring the pickup is neat and the voyage uneventful as the helicopter travels above snow Frozen Marsh Uncharted Wasteland through which no road goes and no Road could be built economically since no one wants to go go anywhere along the way but just from here to there at the other end the radar station which needs this warning gear to be useful there is perhaps a million dollars involved in this single operation more important any one of these installations perhaps this one may give the warning which will save Untold lives this is the mechanism which will give the warning it is is important it comes in just right it does the Army is using the veral helicopter as the carrier of its sky caval pictures made at an exercise in Oklahoma show how this works Mobility load carrying ability versatility these are called for to the fullest in this exercise a full full combat front can be manned Advanced evacuated supplied in minimum [Music] [Applause] time enemy strong points are Lea frogged for daring hit and run attacks and before the strong points are brought to bear the attackers are gone again these are simul ated tactics we hope we never have to use perhaps if we know them well enough we never [Music] shall at the Morton Pennsylvania plant as in all aircraft plants tomorrow was here yesterday the day after is on the drawing boards and in the planning rooms the researchers and experimenters are forever bringing new situations for the computers to analyze new hypotheses and theories bigger vertical takeoff and landing craft faster ones with greater ranges higher speeds and tomorrow's dreams of the conquest of the air we live in the machines are helping them consider problems far into the future at a speed that makes it possible to apply the solution in time for the next engineering [Music] advance and the machines are only as good as the men the answer you get is only as useful as the question you ask is visionary the machines can't tell you what tomorrow looks like they can tell you if your dream will work you need above all the men to plan ahead to operate the big plant to tell the machine what to think about what question to [Music] answer decisions here become facts long distances away refueling in midair now allows the helicopter to move over widening distances in shorter periods of time skyways without runways are being extended and the unique silhouette grows familiar on every Horizon in the world on Pike's Peak in the heart of the Contin nearly 3 miles up into the clouds you can see it or over the surface of the sea it does its work towing or carrying lifting or delivering over short distances or for long Journeys bringing Goods supplies emergency parts for the purposes of Commerce for the needs of an alert defense bringing men where they must be carrying things where they are needed the helicopter is always moving always filling the big jobs and little jobs around the clock around the world you will find vertol helicopters at work