who invented the helicopter?

Answer 1

Leonardo Da Vinci drew an air screw, but it was never built, nor did it ever fly.

Gustave de Ponton de Amecort built a steam-powered rotor craft in 1861 which flew - but it was only a model. He named it a helicopter.

Paul Cornu built a 24 horsepower rotor craft in 1907 which was tethered and lifted him 5 feet off the ground for 1 minute. Not very practical and completely uncontrollable, but may be called the first helicopter.

Raul Pateras de Pescara was the first inventor to successfully manipulate rotor pitch and angle to control direction in the early 1920's. He also demonstrated autorotation, where a helicopter can land safely with no power. He was able to conduct short flights in 1924 of up to 10 minutes.

After this there were various competitions for time and distance, but the machines were extremely impractical and barely controllable, using multiple rotors to gain lift.

Juan de la Cierva built and flew the first successful autogyro in 1923. While not a true helicopter, it set the stage for single rotor helicopters to come. An autogyro's rotor only freewheels and the wind provided by a conventional horizontal propeller that causes it to spin and provide lift.

Abert Gillis von Baumhauer received the first patent for a true working helicopter in 1927. He pioneered a lot of the principles used today in helicopter aviation including the theories of cyclic and collective control.

The first truly useful, viable helicopter was the Folke-Wulf FW 61 which flew in 1936 and was used by the German army in WWII.

Igor Sikorsky, who for many is considered the father of the modern helicopter didn't invent the machine, but did give us the helicopter as we know it today and built the first production models in the form of the XR-4 in 1942.

In 1946 the first Bell 47 helicopter was built and Bell went on to produce the 206, which is the single most popular helicopter in the world.

So to answer your question, it's not that there was clearly one inventor, but a lot of inventors who contributed gradually towards the idea as it evolved into what we know today. Some like Da Vinci only had an idea, others built flying models, others built tethered crafts, then some used wing surfaces for control but a rotor for lift, then others came later and added movable rotor controls, etc...

Answer 2

The IDEA of a vertical Flying machine has been around for hundreds of years. Da Vinci's model was workable if you could find a person that could turn the crank at over 10,000 RPM, and could lift over 10 tons. While MANY people led to the development and invention of it. Igor Sikorsky is credited with the invention. But just like the Wright Brothers he could not have made it without the inventions and ideas of others. Most major developments cannot be created to a single person totally

Answer 3

Actually, Igor Sikorsky was NOT the inventor of the helicopter. That honor belongs to a Frenchman named Paul Cornu in 1907 (some three years prior to Sikorsky's design), whose design was not successful. Another Frenchman, Etienne Oehmichen flew a helicopter for a distance of one kilometer in 1924. An early successful helicopter that flew for a decent distance was the Focke-Wulf FW-61 which was invented by an unknown inventor.

DaVinci drew a plan for a helicopter-like device, but of course it was never built or flown.

Answer 4

That would be Raul Pateras Pescara of Argentina.

DaVinci, just drew plans.
Sikorsky created the the Single Rotor, Single anti-torque rotor configuration that became common for helicopters. By the time Sikorsky's VS-300 flew, the Fw-61 was being used to set records!

Answer 5

Da Vinci sketched some pretty fanciful stuff. The "helecopter" he drew is generaly considered capable of flight, given sufficient power. Much more power than could be produced by human muscles. It took a Russian immigrant named Igor Sikorsky to figure out how to control the thing. It first flew near White Plains NY in 1936. A modern company called United Technologies had its roots in Sikorsky's company

Answer 6

Igor Sikorsky invented the first PRACTICAL working helicopter.

Answer 7

Leonardo Da Vinci

Answer 8

The man named Sikorsky

Answer 9

The French made the first helochopter, but BELL Helochopters perfected it later in life. Sikorski is also a great design as well for larger transport, also Chinook.

Answer 10

The egjptions. Just saw a show on Discovery channel where they found a writing on the wall of the pyramids. I saw it and it looks just like it.