|
NOTES ON HISTORY OF HELICOPTERS
|
In 15th century Italy, famous artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) produced
this sketch of a "helical air screw" to be powered by a wound-up spring. Although
this device, with its rotating spiral to provide lift, was never built - it is one of the
earliest drawings of a helicopter machine.
|
|
Ukranian engineer Igor Sikorsky (1889 - 1972) is credited with building the world's
first helicopter in 1909, but it was more than 25 years before early practical machines
- like the VS-300 (pictured) were flown in prewar trials.
|
|
The science fiction dream of a flying car reached prototype stage back in the mid-1930s,
when the Autogyro Corporation of America, a company set up by Harold Pitcairn to pursue
rotary-wing development, in concert with Spanish inventor of the autogyro Juan de la
Cierva, built the Pitcairn AC-35, a "roadable autogyro" (flown by test pilot
Jim Ray), which reached a speed of 115 mph in the sky but managed only 25 mph on the
ground. The AC-35 is on display in the National Air and Space Museum.
[Further reading: Legacy of Wings, The Harold F. Pitcairn Story
by Frank Kingston Smith]
|
|
By 1936, German inventor Professor Heinrich Focke had one of the first true helicopters,
the FA-61 (built by the Focke-Achgelis company). It could fly at 75 mph for up 150 miles,
and was flown by female test pilot Hanna Reitsch (1st charter member of
Whirly-Girls, founded in 1955
by Jean Ross Howard). But even though the Luftwaffe carried out successful tests with later
versions - such as the FA 223 (pictured), useful for airlift duties, and as a spotter plane
in the early 1940s - very few helicopters saw action during WWII.
|
|
Britain was the first nation to use helicopters during wartime, when an RAF-4 rescued a
pilot and three injured passengers from a plane crash in mountains of northern Burma,
April 1944.
Floyd Bennett airfield in Brooklyn, NY was made a US Coast Guard training facility during
the 1940s. In the summer of 1944, Igor Sikorsky visited the base to help demonstrate a lifting hoist
on a Sikorsky NHS-1 helicopter (on loan from US Navy) piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Frank Erickson.
|
|
|
In the Autumn of 1946, a 50 mile point-to-point race was staged between a commuter train, a
motor car, a 200 mph Lockheed Lodestar airplane and an S-51 - the world's first civilian
helicopter. It was organised by Russian defector and inventor Igor Sikorsky to effectively
prove the worth of his creation as a means of public transportation. The race began
from a small heliport behind the Bridgeport, Connecticut base of Sikorsky Aircraft and ended
in a field behind the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corporation building in nearby East
Hartford - a distance of 50 miles by air. As expected, the Sikorsky helicopter won, landing
on the P&W terrace (see picture) just 31 minutes later. The airplane passengers arrived
in second place (after only 21 minutes flying time) but they were delayed by having to drive
to and from airports to catch their flight. The motorist (a woman driver!) came third, taking
95 minutes on the state highway - where she was stopped by the cops for speeding. The train
journey took over two hours, and was in fact running hehind the scheduled timetable.
|
|
In 1956, American inventor Stanley Hiller Jr built the unique Rotorcycle XROE-1 (pictured),
a mini-helicopter capable of 80 mph. This foldaway unit could be easily assembled in a
few minutes without any special tools.
|
|
America began production of the Bell UH-1, "Huey" - utility helicopter (first
flown in 1956) in 1959, and this was deployed in the Vietnam War during the 1960s, as
a troop transport for 'Air Cavalry' forces, and medevac duties, then later for airborne
assault to protect ground troops.
For more about the use of Hueys in Vietnam, see movies like Apocalypse Now (1979),
and We Were Soldiers (2001).
|
|
|
The Hughes Helicopters 500 series was derived from the US military's OH-6A Cayuse, which first
flew on 27 February 1963, and was chosen by the army as their preferred 'Light Observation
Helicopter'. Many variations of the 500 family (aka: 369), were built from 1960s to 1990s, for
military and civil use, and the 'flying egg' (as it's nicknamed) became one of the most popular
helicopters ever seen in cinema and TV. Hughes Helicopters (founded by the legendary Howard
Hughes), was bought out by McDonnell Douglas in 1984, though MD itself merged with Boeing in
1997, only for its commercial line to be sold off by Boeing two years later.
|
|
In 1967, the French-built Aerospatiale (Eurocopter) SA 341 Gazelle became the first helicopter
to feature a 'fenestron' tail rotor, which reduces noise levels. Similar enclosed tail-rotor
designs have since appeared on Eurocopter's Dauphin 2, and Boeing/Sikorsky's 'stealth'
Comanche. Other versions of the Gazelle were built in UK by Westland Aerospace. Alongside
Westland's Lynx, Gazelles are now in service with British Army Air Corps' helicopter display
team, The Blue Eagles.
In 1983, Hollywood's action movie Blue Thunder used
a modified and customised Gazelle as the 'prototype' armed police helicopter of the title.
|
|
|
In May 1971, a rescue chopper on Mount Everest reached a height of 23,000 feet in the highest
recorded landing by a helicopter.
|
|
With its commando-helicopter imagery, the official badge for German 'special forces' team GSG9
(formed in 1973), gets the Rotary Action seal of approval!
|
|
First flown in 1975 (as YAH-64), the Boeing
(McDonnell Douglas) AH-64 Apache attack helicopter is one of the most successful army gunships
in service, with over 1,000 built in various types since 1984. Most versions carry a Longbow
radar mast above the four-blade rotors. This hi-tech military chopper is showcased in the
exceptional 'rotary action' film Wings Of The Apache (aka: Firebirds, 1990).
US Apache pilots have a saying: "Don't bother running, you'll die tired."
|
|
|
The biggest helicopter in the world (pictured) is Russia's heavy duty Mil Mi-26 Halo, which
first flew in 1977. Over 200 have been built, and the mighty Halo is able to lift payloads
of 20,000 kilos, in a cargo bay similar to a C-130 Hercules transport plane. Halo can
cruise at 250 kph with 70 passengers or 80 troops, and has been used as an airborne hospital
and a flying tanker.
|
|
|
Since 1979, the Robinson R22 has become the world's best-selling light chopper, used for
everything from business transport, aerial photography, police patrols, cattle herding,
and pilot training. It's the cheapest helicopter on the market, and boasts the lowest
operating and maintenance costs.
|
|
The forward velocity of any helicopter is limited due to vibration stresses on the tips of
leading rotor blades as they approach the speed of sound. On 11 August 1986, the current
world speed record for a helicopter was set by a British GKN Westland Lynx (G-LYNX, piloted
by Trevor Egginton), when a test flight with experimental rotor blades topped 400 kph (249
mph) over a 15-kilometre course.
This famous Lynx is now on display at the
Helicopter Museum
in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
|
|
|
Although there were several experimental helicopters and prototypes without tail rotors, such
as the Hiller J-10, and McDonnell's XH-20 'Little Henry' (the world's first ram-jet helicopter,
built in 1947), it wasn't until 2 July 1991 that the very first McDonnell Douglas 500 series'
NOTAR (No Tail Rotor) chopper got airborne, later to become the world's quietest production
helicopter in the 1990s. The MD 520N's first screen appearance was during the action movie,
Speed
(1994).
|
|
|
Expert pilot Ron Bower, founder of
Bower Helicopters, set a new
around-the-world speed record in 1996, flying a Bell 430. He took 17 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes
to circumnavigate the globe.
|
|
|
This picture was doing the rounds on the Internet in 2002, titled - Having a Bad Day
at Work? Reportedly, it was chosen as a 'picture of the year', but it turned out to
be fake. A clever hoax though, it recalls the movie Jaws 2 (1978), in which a monster
shark attacks and tries to eat a rescue helicopter. It also resembles the funny scene
in Batman: The Movie (1966), where the caped crusader is menaced by a shark when he
climbs down a rope ladder from the bat-copter!
|
|
|
On 23 February 2004, the Pentagon officially axed the futuristic Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66
Comanche 'stealth' attack helicopter
(first flown on 4 January 1996). After 20 years development at a reported cost of more
than $30 billion, the US military cancelled the whole programme for this highly advanced
rotorcraft, originally intended to spearhead US Army aviation plans for the 21st century.
Cruising at 165 knots, the Comanche was able to turn in only 4.5 seconds, fly sideways or
backwards at 70 mph, and climb at a rate of 1,400 feet per minute. It's only feature film
appearance was in Ang Lee's magnificent Hulk (2003).
|
|
PIGASUS PRESS ©1999 - 2007
|
