How were helicopters invented, one of the most important technological inventions that allow humans to fly and stay in the air? Let's learn together.
A helicopter is an aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically. The most important part that enables the helicopter to take off is the propellers connected to the horizontally rotating main rotor (rotating part connected to the motor shaft). By changing the angle of the propellers according to the wind, the pilot can move the helicopter up-down, forward-backward or keep it stationary. The propeller in the tail prevents the helicopter from turning around and makes it possible for the vehicle to turn left and right.
French inventor Viscount Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt was designing tiny aircraft in the 1860s. He gave the name hélicoptère, which he produced by combining the Greek helix meaning “spiral” and pteron meaning “wing” to the models he designed, and became the father of the name of this aircraft. .
2,500 years ago in China, children played with flying propeller toys when the palms were quickly spun and released. According to sources, children in Europe also had propeller toys 1,400 years ago. People who thought of flying a toy with a propeller undoubtedly dreamed of raising themselves to the sky with propeller vehicles. However, that would have to wait a long time.
At the end of the 1480s, Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew up plans for a tool he called the "Flying Screw". Da Vinci's design featured a rotating platform to allow upward elevation. This structure, which could be called a propeller, had to be made of flax, while the other parts had to be made of wire and reed. This vehicle, which was thought to work with human power, never became a reality. Today, scientists believe this vehicle will be too heavy to take off.
Although different helicopter designs were made until the discovery of internal combustion engines at the end of the 1800s, none of them came to life. The internal combustion engine also meant that enough power could be provided to lift a helicopter.
In 1907, Frenchman Paul Cornu was able to lift a prototype of a twin-propeller helicopter 30 cm from the ground, albeit for 20 seconds, and became the first person to perform a piloted free flight.
Helicopter development efforts accelerated after Cornu. In 1924, French inventor Etienne Oehmichen followed a 1.69 km long triangular route with the helicopter he developed and remained in the air 15 m above the ground for 7 minutes and 40 seconds.
The first example of today's helicopters in terms of basic principles of flight, flight control, and form was invented by Russian-American engineer Igor Sikorsky. The VS-300, with three propellers connected to a single rotor, powered by a 75 horsepower engine, had a small vertical rotor at the tail end of the helicopter. Flying with ground-tied cables in 1939, the VS-300 made its first free flight in 1940 and remained in the air for 90 minutes. Sikorsky attached buoys to the VS-300 and launched and landed on the water's surface on April 17, 1941. This made it the first amphibious helicopter. On May 6, 1941, the VS-300 set a record by hovering for 1 hour 32 minutes 26.1 seconds.
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972) was a Russian–American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construction.
Sikorsky, who designed the R-4, R-5 and R-6 helicopter models after the VS-300, received helicopter orders from many countries during the Second World War and produced helicopters worth billions of dollars over time.
By the 1960s, double-rotor helicopters began to be produced. These helicopters were particularly more stable and had higher capacities. Today, this design is widely used in the defense industry, as it facilitates the transport of large numbers of soldiers and heavy ammunition from one place to another.
Today, helicopters are used not only for military missions, but also for various purposes, from search and rescue work to extinguishing forest fires, to quickly transporting patients and organs.