A History of the Helicopter

Hello and welcome to the history page

We shall never know who the first person was to think about flight
But one thing that we do know is without it the world would be a totally different place to now

You will notice on the header above that the image base is of Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of a man powered helicopter that was proposed to have a rotor diameter of 9.6m he created this drawing around 1480 to 1490

I suspect that he was probably influenced by Chinese travellers who may have made simple little toys to sell in the ports and villages on their visits. these toys may have been constructed from thin bamboo sticks and paper spirals and tubes simply glued together

I have included some plans below so that you can make your own version of how I think these toys could have been constructed.
I know this is pure guess work and speculation as to the historical side of Leonardo's development of that drawing, but it does allow us to physically experience some of the things that may have influenced Leonardo in his life time, hopefully this might allow us to step closer to history by bringing that experience to life

With Part Two I am curing the problems that are inherant in the first design, that being that the helicopter cannot take off whilst the cord is still around the shaft, this usually results in the catastrophic failure of the rotor disc as it breaks free of the tags and disappears across the room just as soon as it creates enough downward thrust to take off.

The Japanese Helicopter will be added shortly

Paul Cornu
Born: 15th June 1881 - Died: 6th June 1944
As a victim of the second World War at just 62 years old

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cornu
Looking down onto the first helicopter built by the bicycle manufacturer Paul Cornu

Paul Cornu made a modification to his first design that you see in the image above. It had the addition of two vertically suspended hinged panels, across the front and rear of the craft under the rotor discs, that were intended to re-direct some of the thrust from the rotors to create some form of directional control, but it would appear that Paul gave up with his experiments shortly after.
However, he is credited with successfully achieving the first untethered hover for a helicopter, albeit whilst being in ground effect, by completing a twenty second hover at one foot above the ground (30cm) on November the 13th 1907 at Coquain-Villiers, a site close to Pauls bicycle factory at Lisieux.
The maximum altitude attained by Paul was a little over six feet six inches (2m)
The basic design for the craft consisted of an open frame work of thin wall steel tubing wrapped around the Antoinette engine (as seen on the Home Page image) that drove two contra-rotating, twin bladed, rotor discs that were basically giant bicycle wheels, that were all built in Paul’s factory at Lisieux.

George de Bothezat and the Flying Octopus

George de Bothezat was a Russian refugee who proclaimed to be, "the world's greatest scientist and outstanding mathematician".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bothezat_helicopter

George de Bothezat
After an extensive lecture tour that he gave on rotorcraft theory he was awarded a contract with the United States Army. The required craft was to be created around the theoretical works of both de Bothezat and his assistant Ivan Jerome.
The de Bothezat helicopter (nicknamed the “Flying Octopus”) was the experimental 4 rotor helicopter built by George and Ivan in the early 1920s in response to the US Army’s request. It was thought at the time that it was the first successful helicopter.
Although its massive six-bladed rotors allowed the craft to hover successfully (as seen in the picture above) it suffered from complex control difficulties that resulted in a high workload for the pilot. It has been said that it was “only capable of forwards flight”, and that being achieved only in a favourable wind.
It was built in the workshops at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. Along with the four main rotors the craft had two vertical propellers that were intended to act in the same way as a modern tail rotor, they were removed within a few tests as they proved to have no effect at all. The four main rotors all had individual collective control which is probably why the pilot (Major T H Bane) was struggling to maintain control. Even so, it still managed to carry up to four passengers and rise to an altitude of 30ft whilst tethered (that is about the height of a lamp post on any high street), and managed to stay aloft for two minutes and forty five seconds

The aircraft was scrapped when the Army cancelled the program in 1924.

An interesting documentary about the development of the helicopter has been created by the Discovery Channel, in which original footage of the Octopus flying freely at an altitude of ten meters for approximately 100 hundred yards is included. This certainly contradicts the statement made at the time about it barely being capable of flight.

The Gyroplane Laboritaire-Louis Breguet 1880-1955

As you can see from the attached picture, the aircraft consisted of an open steel tube framework containing the engine, fuel tank, controls and pilot. The tail assembly was constructed with plywood surfaces. The main wheels were mounted on outriggers, with an additional wheel at the front to help to prevent the craft from nosing-over which would have had catastrophic results had the blades hit the ground. The contra rotating co-axial rotors were powered by a 240 hp Hispano radial engine. The coaxial rotor design was chosen, as the rotors turn in opposite directions, thus the torque from one rotor was cancelled out by the torque produced by the other rotor.
The two, twin-bladed rotors made of metal were distinctively shaped like arrows and incorporated both cyclic and collective pitch blade control, allowing movement around the pitch and roll axis, as well as climb and descent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroplane_Laboratoire

The Bréguet-Dorand aircraft was finished in1933. After ground tests and an accident, the first flight took place on 26th June1935. Within a short time the pilot, Maurice Claisse was setting some of the first helicopter records.
on the 14th December 1935 he completed a flight around a circuit that had a diameter of 500m showing good control
Then on the 26th September 1936 Maurice piloted the Laboratoire to an altitude of 158 m
And on the 24th November 1936 he completed a flight that lasted for 1 hour 2 minutes and 5 seconds with a top speed achieved of 75mph (120kph) over a 27.5m (44km) circuit at an average speed of 27.9mph (44.7 km/h)

The Gyroplane Laboratoire and its accomplishments were soon overshadowed by the German FW-61. Breguet and Dorand continued to conduct further experiments to improve the design until the aircraft experienced a hard landing in June 1939. Development was abandoned with the outbreak of World War 2. The only prototype was destroyed in 1943 during an allied air attack on the airfield at Villacoublay.

The Focke-Achgelis Fa-61 (FW61)

Professor Henrich Focke and engineer Gerd Achgelis started the design for this helicopter in 1932.

First flown in 1936, this aircraft was also known as the F 61 (Focke-Achgelis)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_61

Proffessor Focke received an order for the building of a prototype in February 1935, which was designated the Fa 61, however Focke preferred to call it the F 61.
The craft was based on Focke’s well proven training aircraft the Focke Wolfe 44 Stieglitz. The standard radial engine was coupled to twin rotors, set on outriggers at the sides of the fuselage. The contra-rotation of the rotors solved the problem of torque. The propeller was only kept on to keep the engine cool during hovering and slow flight.
After some very promising resullts an order for a second aircraft was placed in December 1935.

Of the two aircraft that were produced, the first (V 1 D-EBVU) accomplished its’ first free flight with Ewald Rohlf at the controls on the 26 of June 1936. The second prototype (V 2 D-EKRA) made its first flight on 10 May 1937, with its’ first autorotation landing (with the engine turned off) successfully concluded on the same date.

The German test pilot Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the Fa 61 in February of 1938, by flying it indoors at the Deutschlandhalle sports stadium in Berlin. Film of this event still exists. This craft soon achieved the records for altitude by rising to a staggering 11,243 ft. (3,427m) along with achieving a speed of 143mph (230kph).

For whatever reason the project was abandoned allowing for more intense development work to be carried out on conventional aircraft in the lead up to what became the Second World War.

Igor Sikorsky

The father of the modern helicopter

Born May 25, 1889

Died October 26, 1972, aged 83.

Igor Sikorsky in his VS-300 at the end of 1941
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought-Sikorsky_VS-300

In 1939 Igor designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 the first viable American helicopter. Sikorsky later modified the design to create the Sikorsky R-4, which later became the world’s first mass produced helicopter in 1942. With the R4 Igor pioneered the rotor configuration as popularly used by most helicopters today.

Igor was home schooled by his mother Mariya, who was a qualified physician. She instilled in Igor a great love of art, and a passion for the works of both, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jules Verne.

Jules Verne wrote several stories based around flying that would most certainly have influenced the young Igor. His father Ivan passed his love of natural sciences onto Igor, and thus by the age of twelve, Igor had created his first rubber powered helicopter, and a dream was born.

At the age of seventeen Igor left the Russian Naval Academy to study Engineering in Paris. A year later he was back in Russia to study engineering in the “Mechanical College” of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. After a year of study Igor accompanied his father to Germany, where, on hearing of the exploits of the Wright Brothers, and count Von Zeppelin, he again changed his mind and decided that he would instead study Aeronautics.

Like a Yo-Yo, Igor returned to Paris with his sisters financial help to study at the “Ecole de Techniques Aeronautiques” but by May 1909 he was back in Russia to design his first helicopter. Despite his amazing progress through the technical problems of control he quickly realised that his craft would not be capable of flight, owing to inefficient engines and materials. Coupled with reduced finances he decided to pack up his efforts in October of 1909. He certainly did not waste time coming to conclusions in his endeavours. He is quoted as having said “I had learned enough to recognize that with the existing state of the art, engines, materials, and, most of all, the shortage of money and lack of experience… I would not be able to produce a successful helicopter at that time”

With the winds of revolutionary change already flowing through Russia, Igor made the decision to emigrate to the United States of America where he gazed upon the Statue of Liberty in New York’s harbour on the 30th March 1912.

After working as a school teacher and lecturer Igor joined the Rhode Island University in 1932 where he was engaged on the Aeronautical Engineering faculty until 1948.

Whilst Igor was Igor was teaching and lecturing he filed patents for vertical lift aircraft, one of these was granted in 1935, and then in just four years the first tethered flight of the VS-300 was carried out on September the 14th 1939. This was quickly followed on the 26th May 1940 with the first totally free flight of the VS-300 as seen below.

I cannot find a record for the origin of this image, but as you can see in the image that Igor had already removed one of the vertical tail rotors.

As a direct result of the efforts that Igor had put in, the VS-300 had developed into a single rotor design that utilised a single tail rotor to control the yaw of the craft. This was quickly modified to become the R-4.

en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/82/R-4_AC_HNS1_3_300.jpg

The world’s first mass produced helicopter.