The History of the Helicopter

This page is under construction! This page may not be completed and may only display partially correct information. Please use the discussion page before making any changes. Last updated on 22 January 2026.

The History of the Helicopter screen title.

Documentary (1952)

Production:
Shell Production

Also from this series:
Shell Historical Film Archive

Examines the historical development of different helicopter concepts that led to the final practical design, and discusses the helicopter's control mechanisms.

Introduction

The relevance of the helicopter compared to the airplane, illustrated in the example below.

Westland WS-51 Dragonfly

Flight over ocean around Cornwall/Scilly Islands.

Westland WS-51 Dragonfly of Royal Navy.

Above Wolf Rock Lighthouse, 8 nautical miles (15 km/9.2 mi) southwest of Land's End, in Cornwall, England. Not yet fitted with the helipad on the top at this time.

Unidentified Aircraft flying around on the right.

Biplane to the left, possibly De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide.

Dreams, intuitions and experiences

Icarus

The myth of Icarus symbolizing a dream as old as humankind.

Besnier ailes

Man-powered flight idea of French Jacob Besnier in 1678.
A satirical version of the story where Icarus is seen clinging to Besnier's legs.

Leonardo da Vinci Ornitottero

Vinci's central idea throughout his life (1452-1519) was that reproducing the mechanics of bird flight would be the only way to enable humans to fly. History will not prove him right on that point.
Circa 1486/1490.

Inclining plane ornithopter.

Circa 1485.

Experiment with articulated flapping wings.

Circa 1486/1490.

Leonardo da Vinci Aerial Screw

Helicopter concept proposed by L. da Vinci as combination of 'Helix' meaning 'spiral', to whirling wings and 'pteron' meaning wings.

Chinese top

Toy whose origin is lost in early Chinese history.

Chinese top, a pair of wings at the head of a stick.

Launoy et Bienvenu Hélices contra-rotatives

1784. It's unusual flight caused a sensation when demonstrated before the Académie des Sciences of Paris.

Hélicoptère de Launoy et Bienvenu, consisted of two wings which rotated in opposite directions.

Cayley's top

Sir George Cailey (1773-1857) one of the fathers of Aeronautics, developed a more elaborate top on similar lines of Chinese top.

Whirling wing lift

Undated experience.

If the blades of a wing or propeller are set level, they will only whirl when driven round.

But if they are set at an angle and then driven round...

...the blades will produce lift.

Cailey Aerial Carriage (model)

1843.

Cailey Aerial Carriage was the first plan for a man-carriage helicopter.

Henson Aerial Steam Carriage

1842. Project by William Samuel Henson (1812-1888), inspired by Cailey's works.

Henson Aerial Steam Carriage, Aerial Machine had been patented by its inventor but never produced.

Cossus helicopter

1845. No better information found on the web about this French project.

Cossus helicopter had three rotating aerial screws that were moved by steam power.

Ponton d'Amécourt Hélicoptère

1863. Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt (1825-1888) was French inventor who built this experimental prototype.

Hélicoptère de Ponton d'Amécourt Chère hélice consisted of counter-rotating propellers and a steam engine. Patented in France and Great Britain and exhibited at the 1868 London Aeronautical Exposition. The device managed to rise a few meters.

Forlanini Elicottero sperimentale

1877. Enrico Forlanini (1848-1930) experimental helicopter.

Elicottero di Forlanini powered by a steam engine. It was the first of its type that rose to a height of 13 metres, where it remained for some 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan.

Wright Flyer III

Fast forward a few decades, to the Wright brothers who had bet on the fixed-wing airplane. The petrol engine made possible man's first successful flight in 1903. Had this first flight been achieved with a rotary-wing helicopter, the history of flight might have been different.

Wright Flyer III, third version launched in 1905.

Same aircraft seen in other movies - IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Unidentified Aircraft

Though the success of fixed-wing airplanes experience with Wright Brothers, Farman, Voisin, Santos-Dumont and others, the moving wings still had its advocates. The first 30 years of the century, they went on trying to make machines which would rise vertically into the air.

Same aircraft seen in other movies - IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Unidentified Aircraft

Same aircraft seen in other movies - IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Pitts Sky Car

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Pitts Sky Car

Pitts Sky Car

Pitts Sky Car

Gray Goose

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Unidentified Aircraft

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Maiwurm Flyworm Cyclonic Aircraft

Designed and built by Paul Maiwurm in Mission Beach-San Diego,CA.

Registered X990E Maiwurm Flyworm Cyclonic Aircraft was an experimental tilt-wing single-seater powered by an 80hp Le Rhône rotary engine, and using a rotating barrel to create a theoretical "cyclonic vortex" at 200 rpm for thrust. It was started in 1925 and tested in 1929. What degree of success is not known.

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Others)#Rockets, Missiles & Space Vehicules (Capsules, Shuttles, etc...).

Breguet-Richet Gyroplane No.2

Louis Breguet (1880-1955) and Charles Richet (1850-1935) produced the first helicopter to leave the ground with a pilot aboard See Gyroplane No.1 in Wings of Russia (Page 3). The machine was instable but it did at least prouved that the rotating-wing aircraft was feasible.
The Breguet-Richet collaboration produced a variant Gyroplane No.2 which made a number of successful flights in the summer of 1908.

Breguet-Richet Gyroplane No.2, helicopter-aeroplane, combining the principles of the lifting screw with the aeroplane pure and simple. The screws are two in number, and are placed at an angle of 40° to the vertical between the front and rear biplanes.

Berliner 1908-9

Emile (1851-1929) and Henry (1895-1970) Berliner became the first Americans to make any significant progress towards the creation of a practical helicopter, experimenting with this type of aircraft between 1907 and 1925.

Berliner 1980-9 Helicopter, no exact picture of it found on the net.

The fear of his/her life in this unsuccessful taking off test.

Etienne Oehmichen N°2

No.2 had 4 rotors and 8 propellers, all driven by a single 120hp Le Rhone rotary engine when it flew for the first time on 11 November 1922.

Etienne Oehmichen N°2

Etienne Oehmichen N°7 Helicostat

Leinweber Helicopter

Built by Leinweber Brothers (Curtis and William).

Leinweber Helicopter consisted of 4 three-bladed propellers and 2 Gnome engines of 100hp each.

De Bothezat Helicopter

George de Bothezat (1882-1940) was an American engineer who built this experimental quadrotor helicopter for the United States Army Air Service in 1921.

De Bothezat Helicopter known as the Flying Octopus.

Pescara Helicoptère No.2R

The Marquis Raoul Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio (1890-1966), a Franco-Italian engineer, developed and piloted at least five experimental helicopters, first in Spain and then in France, with the assistance of the Aeronautical Technical Service at Issy-les-Moulineaux between 1920 and 1931. Their construction was based on identical principles: coaxial rotors rotating in opposite directions, fabric-covered biplane blades, and automobile axles. With his third helicopter, he set the world record for straight-line distance, covering 736 meters in flight on April 18, 1924, at the Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield.

Pescara Helicoptère No.2R.

Asboth AH-4

Oszkár Asboth (1891-1960) was an Hungarian aviation engineer sometimes credited with the invention of the helicopter. Between 1928 and 1931, Asboth tested various contra-rotating co-axial two-bladed rotors only 4.35m in diameter.
Asboth AH-4 used counter-rotating coaxial main rotors powered by a 110hp Clerget rotary engine with multiple hinged vanes in the rotor downwash. Control was very poor, but by mid-1930 the aircraft reportedly attained an altitude of 30m and covered 3.2km at about 19km/h.

Sikorsky H-5 (model)

Model illustrating theories concerning the stability of rotary-wing aircraft, especially the role of small vertical rotor driven by the same engine as the main rotor to avoid auto-rotation of the body in opposite direction of the blades rotation.

Sikorsky H-5 (model)

Another, simpler model, to explain the instability of a rotary-wing when moving forward. One blade of the rotor is moving with the airflow while another is moving against it. This produces unequal lift and, therefore, instability. The answer to this problem was to hinge the blades so they could flap and could also speed up or slow down relative to each other. See the rotor of Cierva C.30 in next chapter right below.

Autogyro

Cierva C.30

Juan de la Cierva (1895-1936) discovered the principle of flapping blade, applied on all range of his productions.

Cierva C.6

Despite this one is not a Cierva C.19 as the narrator says but a C6 of 1924, it belongs to a new category of aircraft called autogyro or gyroplanes. But it is not an helicopter. The machine is propelled by an airscrew, and the rotor is turned by aerodynamics forces acting on it, and not by the engine. In short, an autogyro is an aircraft in which the wings are replaced by a rotor.

Avro 671

Cierva C.30 built under license by A V Roe & Co Ltd factory at Manchester as Avro 671.

Registration G-ACUU Avro 671 of Air Service Training, c/n 726. Delivered new to Air Service Training (Scotland UK), in 1934. Impressed into RAF service in September 1942, registered HM580. Bought by Cierva Autogiro Company in May 1946, refurbished and restored as G-AIXE. During overhaul the true identity was discovered and the aircraft was re-registered as intial pre war G-ACUU. Sold to Guy Spencer Baker of Ludlow, Salop. Loaned to Staverton-based Skyfame Museum in 1964. Transferred to Imperial War Museum at Duxford in 1978. Repainted in RAF colours with HM580 KX-K registration.

Helicopters

This chapter concerns fully developed helicopters that require no external assistance (ground personnel) other than the pilot for proper operation in terms of maneuverability and stability.

Florine Tandem Helicopter

Nicolas Florine (1891-1972) was a Russian born engineer settled in Belgium.

Florine Tandem Helicopter exploiting the principle of the flapping-blade rotor for the first time in tandem configuration. 3 prototypes were built, first flight in 1929. Predecessor of the future Piasecki "flying-banana".

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

D'Ascanio D'AT3 Helicopter

Corradino D'Ascanio (1891-1981) was an Italian aeronautical engineer. He developped this prototype in 1930 and established the first world helicopter record, with the flight of 8 and 3/4 minutes, covering 1000 yards at a height of 59ft, and reached the speed of 15 miles an hour.

D'Ascanio D'AT3 Helicopter.
This relatively large machine had two double-bladed, counter-rotating rotors, with control achieved by using auxiliary wings or servo-tabs on the trailing edges of the blades. A concept that was later adopted by other helicopter designers.

Breguet-Dorand Gyroplane

The first flight in 1933 ended by an accident. Rebuilt in 1935, the aircraft set lots of record until 1939 (Flight duration exceeding one hour; altitude; speed -over 100 km/h ...).

Breguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire.
The transmission from the big radial Hispano-Suiza engine drove a pair of co-axial, counter-rotating, 2-blade metal rotors whose blades had an aerofoil section and an unusually large diameter. Novel features for the time were the use of a cyclic pitch control for lateral and longitudinal movement, and collective pitch for movement in the vertical plane.

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Westland WS-51 Dragonfly 2

Demonstration of the main rotor control during takeoff, moving forward, then turning right.Seen again further in the page.
At Yeovil Aerodrome, Somerset UK (Yeovil/Westland Airport (---/EGHG) nowadays, also Westland’s constructor’s airfield).

Registration G-ALIK Westland WS-51 Dragonfly 2 of Westland Aircraft Limited, c/n WA/H/003.
First flight on February 16th 1949 with Westland Aircraft Limited. Re-registered G-APPS in December 1959. Sold to Bristow Helicopters in November 1961. Exported in Trinidad & Tobago in 1963 with unknown operator, registered VP-TCM. Sold to unknown operator in Nigeria, registered 5N-AGA. Taken on strength/charge with the Nigerian Air Force registered NAF510.

Focke-Wulf Fw 61

Demonstration of flight in Deutschlandhalle, Berlin by German aviator Hanna Reitch (1912-1979) in February 1938.

Registration D-EBVU Focke-Wulf Fw 61, c/n V1.
First flight in June 1936. Several world records achieved from 1937 to 1939: altitude, endurance, speed, closed circuit distance, straight line distance. Destroyed during the WWII.

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Sikorsky VS-300 Third Configuration

The VS-300 helicopter was designed as a research vehicle that was modified iteratively based on flight test results. This version is the 3rd among 4 configurations recognizable by its tail with 3 rotors. First test on March 6, 1940.

Same aircraft seen in other films IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Westland WS-51 Dragonfly 2

All these discoveries helped to produce the helicopter as we know it today. It's still curious to look at, but it can fly in a way even surpassing the flight of birds. Capable of flying backwards, takes off and lands vertically, hovers in the air, even turns a full circle over the same spot.
G-ALIK already mentioned above at Yeovil Aerodrome.

Unidentified Aircraft

Seen on the apron of Yeovil Aerodrome during the rotation of the WS-51 on its own axis.

.

De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide

Also seen on the apron of Yeovil Aerodrome during the rotation of the WS-51 on its own axis.

.

Bristol 171

Civilian version or prototype of the military Bristol 171 Sycamore. 180 aircraft produced between 1947 to 1958.

.

.

.

Cierva W.11 Air Horse

Using three rotors mounted on outriggers, and driven by a single engine mounted inside the fuselage. It could lift a total weight of just over 8 tonnes or carry 24 passengers. It was the largest helicopter in the world at the time and filled the gap between the usual helicopters with their limited loads and the airplanes.

Registration G-ALCV Cierva W.11 Air Horse with RAF markings VZ-724.
First flight on December 7th 1948. Unfortunately it crashed during a flight test on June 13th 1950.

.

.

.

.

.

Cierva W.14 Skeeter 2

Originated as Cierva Autogiro Company, the W.14 Skeeter 1 first flew on October 8th 1948. The program was completed by Saunders-Roe, for evaluation by the Ministry of Supply, after the latter company had acquired Cierva in January 1951.

Registration G-ALUF Cierva W.14 Skeeter 2 prototype by Cierva Autogiro Company, c/n 2.

.

.

.

.

.

Back To:

• Movie/TV List
  
• Top

See also

• The History of the Helicopter at IMDb
• The History of the Helicopter at YouTube