Who Invented the Helicopter?

The long time dream of humans to flying machine that would be rise straight up in an old one! It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci made drawings for a gigantic screw like helicopter about A.D. 1500. Da Vinci never tried to build one because he had no motor to drive it.

Who Invented the Helicopter? So, it is unclear and no one knows where it came from but a toy helicopter known as “the Chinese top” was shown in France in 1783. However, in 1796, Sir George Cayley made experimental forms of Chinese tops and also designed a steam driven helicopter.

For the next 100 years, a number of people made designs for helicopters. Some were fantastic, other almost practical, and a few of them actually flew. But there were no powerful, lightweight engines. It was not until such engines were made during World War I that anyone made a helicopter that got off the ground with a man aboard.

In 1906, two French brother Jacques and Louis Breguet made a successful experiment of Gyroplane No. 1. That machine lifted its pilot into the air about 0.6 meters (2 ft) for a minute. Igor Sikorsky built two helicopters or chopper in 1909 and 1910. One of them actually lifted its own weight. Towards the end of year 1917, two Austro-Hungarian officers built a helicopter to take the place of observation balloons.

It made a number of flights to high altitudes but was never allowed to fly freely. Therefore, work on helicopter continued in many countries but none of the machines were what the inventors had hoped for. In 1936, an statement came from Germany that the Focke-Wulf Company had built a successful helicopter.

However, in 1937 it flew cross country at speeds close to 70 miles an hour and went up more than 335 meters. In 1940, Sikorsky showed his first practical helicopter and it was delivered to the United States Army in 1942. Silkorsky design was called the VS-300. Soon after, Helicopter was used in military campaign. Source: Charismatic Planet