Another development for vertical flight is the Higgins helicopter, designed by Enea Bossi and built by the Higgins Industries, Inc, of New Orleans, Louisiana. The ship is a two-place, side-by-side, basically single-rotor design, similar to the Sikorsky helicopters. It has as yet not flown, but tests are now under way prior to flight.

Small and streamlined, the tail of the craft turns up like a scorpion. The fuselage is entirely covered, has a forward section with metallic skin, while the tail is covered with fabric. There is a small, two-bladed, vertical tail rotor mounted on an upsweeping structure that puts the hub on the same plane with the main rotor. The ship has a fixed tricycle landing gear. It has a four-bladed rotor with two pairs of blades mounted in different planes, one above the other, and several inches apart.

Inside the cabin the controls are very similar to those in a conventional airplane. It has a wheel control column that looks identical to the control wheel in an airliner. There is a standard aircraft instrument panel, and the pitch-control and clutch-control levers look much like the gearshift on a car. The rudder pedals resemble brake and clutch pedals of an automobile. The craft gives the definite appearance of being the sportsman's helicopter, for which it was undoubtedly designed.

H.F.Gregory "Anything a Horse Can Do. The story of the Helicopter", 1944

In 1942 an Aircraft Division was formed in Higgins Industries Inc, owned by Andrew Higgins, with the object of manufacturing transport aircraft for the United States Air Force.

There was also a Helicopter Division concerned with building and perfecting a helicopter designed by Enea Bossi.

This small two-seater helicopter had a main four-bladed rotor, consisting of two two-bladed rotors a few Inches apart, and a small two-bladed tail rotor. The latter was fixed to the end of the upward-rising tail so that the tail rotor hub was at approximately the same level as the main rotor.

The cabin interior was designed to resemble as closely as possible that of a lightweight aircraft with a wheel control column and a standard panel of flying instruments.

P.Lambermont "Helicopters and Autogyros of the World", 1958

Technical data for EB-1 Number of seats: 2, engine: 1 x Warner rated 190hp, rotor diameter: 9.75m, weight fully loaded: 1155kg, empty weight: 885kg, cruising speed: 200km/h

Robert Petite, e-mail, 08.01.2023 John

Do you still have your presentation book on Higgins by chance. Working on a story for VERTICAL magazine.

Robert Petite

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Robert Petite, e-mail, 08.01.2023 David

Hi David:

Dis you ever sell your Higgins model?? Do you happen to have a photo. Doing story for VERTICAL magazine.

Bob Petite

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