Rotary-Wing Aircraft

1931 Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro

Autogiro

Like an airplane, the autogiro is moved by an engine-powered propeller, but like a helicopter, lift is provided by a rotor. The rotor is not powered, and while the aircraft can land vertically, it cannot take off vertically. The Detroit News purchased this autogiro to gather news. The novel aircraft probably was better at making news!

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Helicopter Flying over 3-Level Highway, Greyhound Bus on Each Level, circa 1940

Photographic print

More than 30 years passed between the invention of the airplane and the advent of a practical helicopter. Once it was perfected, though, the helicopter was adopted quickly. Its vertical takeoff and motionless hover abilities lent it to a wide range of applications including traffic control, search and rescue efforts, emergency medical transport, and military operations.

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Georges de Bothezat in His Helicopter at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, 1923-1924

Photographic print

The search for a practical helicopter was difficult, particularly because of the challenges in controlling such an aircraft. In 1922 Russian-American inventor Georges de Bothezat, with funding from the U.S. Army, produced a four-rotor craft capable of vertical takeoff but limited in its horizontal motion. Convinced that de Bothezat's design was unworkable, the Army canceled the project in 1924.

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Two Helicopters Aloft, circa 1940

Photographic print

More than 30 years passed between the invention of the airplane and the advent of a practical helicopter. Once it was perfected, though, the helicopter was adopted quickly. Its vertical takeoff and motionless hover abilities lent it to a wide range of applications including traffic control, search and rescue efforts, emergency medical transport, and military operations.

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1939 Sikorsky VS-300A Helicopter

Helicopter

Igor Sikorsky, as a young man in Russia, tried unsuccessfully to build a helicopter in 1909. He went on to build fixed-wing aircraft but returned to helicopters in 1938. Within three years, he had developed the first practical helicopter in the United States: the VS-300A.

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