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, co-founded the Platt-LePage Aircraft Company in partnership with Haviland Hull Platt, the company's intended purpose being the manufacture of helicopters.McGowen 2005, p.18. 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.Pattillo 2000, p.142.
First Army helicopter
Having employed designer Grover Loening as a consultant and helicopter enthusiast Frank Piasecki employed as a junior engineer,Charnov 2003, pp.183. Platt-Lepage set to work developing the helicopter, using a similar rotor arrangement to that of the Fa 61.McGowen 2005, p.19. 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,Uttley 2001, p.40. 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,Pattillo 2000, p.143. 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.Wood, Robert H. Aviation News Volume 7, p.13. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947. 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.Boyne 2002, p.78.
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,Francillon 1990, p.8. 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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