HELICOPTERS
The idea of a flying machine lifted by a spinning rotor is centuries’ old. The Italian painter and scientist Leonardo da Vinci designed a simple helicopter in about 1500, but he did not have an engine to power it. In 1907 Frenchman Paul Cornu rose 30 centimetres into the air in a twin-rotor helicopter, but he had no controls.
The Focke-Achgelis Fa-61 of 1936, the first successful helicopter, and the Sikorsky VS-300, the first single-rotor helicopter.
The first successful helicopters, built in the 1930s, had two rotors for lift and a propeller for propulsion. The single-rotor helicopter was developed by Russian-born American engineer Igor Sikorsky. The main rotor provided lift and propulsion, and the tail rotor prevented the fuselage (body of the aircraft) spinning in the opposite direction to the main rotor. Helicopters were soon being used by navies and for passenger services. The development of the jet engine in the 1950s made larger, faster helicopters possible.
Picture Credit : Google