The History of The Helicopter

     Inventors all over the world were interested in vertical flight. (Which is what a helicopter is.) At as early about 400 ce people were experimenting with different kinds of vertical lift machines. (Mostly toy/models or just ideas.) The Chinese had a toy that used the same principles of helicopters. It was a Chinese kite, which used a source of lift that was a rotary wing. It worked by pulling a string that turned a rotary blade making it spin and causing the toy to fly upwards. These toys were known during the middle ages.

    At the latter time of the 15th century, Leonardo Da Vinci drew pictures of what seemed like helicopters. That worked to obtain lift using a spiral airscrew. Another early work of helicopters was also another toy. Using real bird feathers to work as rotors. It was shown to the French Academy of Science in 1784 by two artisans, Launoy and Bienvenu. In 1870, Alphonse Penard in France, made greater successful model of this feathered toy.

    Sir George Clayley is the man who a lot of people call the father of fixed-wing flight. Sir George Clayley gave us the first exposition of the principles that led us to the successf.laul helicopter, in 1843.  After his new scientific principles, it started a growing amount of helicopter ideas from numerous inventors. Mostly models or sketches. Many did not work. But other inventors’ ideas contributed to the final solution of a helicopter.

    There were two significant steps forward in the history of the helicopter in 1907. The Breguet  brothers, Louis and Jacques, under the guidance of physiologist and aviation pioneer Charles Richet made a short flown flight in their Gyroplane No. 1, it was powered by one 45-horsepower engine. They did this short flight on September 29, 1907. The other significant step forward in the history of the helicopter in 1907 took place later in November. Their country man Paul Cornu, who was a bicycle maker just like the Write brothers (The brothers who invented the airplane), stayed at a free flight of twenty seconds’, flying at a distance of about one foot off the ground. He did it in a 24-horsepower engine twin-rotor craft.

    By now helicopters started showing more success all over the world. In 1912 the dDanish made features like contrarotating rotors and cyclic pitch control. On December 18, 1922 the U.S. Army Air Force lifted off the ground for less than two minutes. On January 9, 1923, Juan De La Cierra made a great flight in a autogiro. Later the technology is put into helicopters and helicopters make it obsolete. In 1936 Germany stepped to the forefront of helicopters development. They made the FaG-I, it made a lot of records. A flight of 11,243 feet off the ground and 143 miles across the country. The United States used the VS-300 in 1939-41. It was small and featured the same characteristics that most modern helicopters us.

    There are now a lot of kinds of helicopters, ranging from sizes and shapes, with different functions. I will get into more detail about these later in my blog. Can’t wait to start writing about the awesome stuff the new helicopters can do and all of their weapons. It is going to be great.