A few would be placed with commuter airlines, but the ideas of STOLports in major metropolitan areas never caught on as expected. The Courier would succeed in the bush flying market and approximately 500 were produced with the majority going to operators in Canada and Alaska. Helio would select the 260 horsepower geared Lycoming GO-435 engine which, paired with the excellent wing design, could give takeoff and landing distances of just a few times the aircraft’s length. The design was ultimately named the Courier and the Helio Aircraft Company was incorporated in Kansas to start serial production in the early 1950s. The landing gear was additionally placed far forward to allow heavy braking on landing without the aircraft tipping over on its nose. Due to the low speeds allowed ground control could be difficult in strong crosswinds so a castering wheel design was used that allowed the main wheels to turn up to 20 degrees each side of center. The all-new wing design used high lift trailing edge flaps and fully automatic leading-edge slats which combined to allow the new design to remain airborne and controlled as low as 27 mph (43 km/h). New Hampshire-based Wiggins Airways partnered with former Ford engineer Otto Koppen to heavily modify a Piper Vagabond into a STOL design – the fuselage was extended by four feet and a larger tail was added for better controllability. These needs crossed paths with some of the new commuter airlines that wanted an ultra-short takeoff and landing (STOL) design that could transport passengers on new routes to smaller towns that were never economical to service before as well as potential STOLports located in the heart of major cities. Shortly after World War II, in backwoods airports across states like Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, a need for a high-performance plane that could get into remote airfields existed that couldn’t be filled by new, low power designs or by heavy purpose-built surplus planes.
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