The Transmission of Helicopter Technology, 1920‐1939: Exchanges with von Baumhauer
- ️https://drew.academia.edu/AlexdeVoogt
Related papers
Helicopter History: The implications of the von Baumhauer archive
The legacy of Albert von Baumhauer, a Dutch helicopter pioneer, extends beyond his contributions to the development of the helicopter. His extensive correspondence and notebooks that have been preserved and catalogued are a testimony of contacts between aviation theorists, helicopter pioneers and specialists of aerodynamics. This study gives a first glimpse of his correspondence concerning helicopter patents as well as a second experimental helicopter that was designed by him but did not materialize. The correspondence shows that von Baumhauer was in contact with Burke Wilford from the United States and Anton Flettner from Germany and that he had extensive correspondence with Oscar Asbóth from Hungary for whom he rewrote an English patent application. The second helicopter project by von Baumhauer remained largely unknown since the machine was never built. It shows the diversity of von Baumhauer's designs that has also been attested for other helicopter pioneers.
The idea of a vehicle that could lift itself vertically from the ground and hover motionless in the air was probably born at the same time that man first dreamed of flying."
2006
The Rotating Wing Aircraft Meeting of October 28 – 29, 1938 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA, sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, was an historic gathering of those involved, committed to and researching Autogiro/convertiplane/helicopter flight. It was, as described in the Preface to the Conference Proceedings, “the first free discussion in this field of science open to all engineers in the aircraft industry.” This was a significant gathering for the future of rotary wing flight in America, coming at a time when the Autogiro movement was moribund and helicopter development was just about to receive a boost with commencement of the just-passed Dorsey-Logan Bill. And, perhaps of greater importance, those attending including many of the leading developers of rotary wing flight were actively speculating as to the future that such flight might take. Their speculations, now generally forgotten, would be vindicated within the de...
Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. In contrast with fixedwing aircraft, this allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover and to fly forwards, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixedwing aircraft would not be able to take off or land. The capability to efficiently hover for extended periods of time allows a helicopter to accomplish tasks that fixed-wing aircraft and other forms of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft cannot perform. The word 'helicopter' is adapted from the French hélicoptère, coined by Gustave de Ponton d'Amecourt in 1861, which originates from the Greek helix/helik = "twisted, curved" and pteron = "wing". Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, it was the single main rotor with antitorque tail rotor configuration of this design that would come to be recognized worldwide as the helicopter. The earliest references for vertical flight have come from China. Since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys and the 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi ("Master who Embraces Simplicity") reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft: Someone asked the master about the principles of mounting to dangerous heights and traveling into the vast inane. The Master said, "Some have made flying cars with wood from the inner part of the jujube tree, using ox-leather fastened to returning blades so as to set the machine in motion." It was not until the early 1480s when Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an "aerial screw" that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built small flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the whole craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became more accepted, men continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight. Many of these later models and machines would more closely resemble the ancient bamboo flying top with spinning wings, rather than Da Vinci's screw.
American Helicopter Society Annual Forum Proceedings, 2012
Gustave de Ponton dʼAmécourt, Gaspard Félix Tounachon and Guillaume Joseph Gabriel de La Landelle, dubbed the "Triumvirat Hélicoptèroidal" by French physicist Jacques Babinet, played indirect and subtle roles in the early history of the development of rotary-wing flight in the latter 19 th century in Paris. Tournachon, adopting the professional name of ʻNadarʼ, innovated aerial photography (from a balloon), forever changing the way people viewed the earth and significantly contributing to an enthusiasm for aviation, a term thought to have been coined by fantasy artist Gabriel de la Landelle. Landelleʼs appealing representations of just-possible future helicopter-ships caught the public fancy, also contributing to an awareness of such potential flight. Vicomte Gustave de Ponton dʼAmécourt had begun working on a steam-powered coaxial rotary-wing design in 1853-in the process, coining the word ʻhelicopterʼ, and by 1863 a steam powered aluminum model had been produced by mechanic L. Joseph of Arras. Although the model aircraft failed, it represented the first use of aluminum in engine construction and was a milestone attempt to solve the weight/power issues necessary for manned flight that had been set forth by Sir George Caley, the "father of aerodynamics", in his 1809-10 series of papers under the collective title "On Aerial Navigation." These three, under the direction and promotion of Nadar, formed the ʻSociété dʼAutolocomotion Aérienneʼ in 1862, the name of which was changed two years later to Société dʼAviation-the first organization to employ this term. These efforts resulting in a greatly increased public enthusiasm and awareness among the common people and notables of the time, and came to involve and inspire Jules Verne, who became the organizationʼs secretary and promoter. Verne, in 1886, wrote Robur-le-Conquérant (Robur the Conqueror), known in English as The Clipper of the Clouds, the first helicopter novel, which would be read a young Russian boy and, much later, cited as a seminal inspiration-his name was Igor Sikorsky.
The breguet-richet quad-rotor helicopter of 1907
Vertiflite, 2002
At the beginning of the 20th century the French scientist and academician Charles Richet built a small, un-piloted helicopter. Although the machine was unsuccessful, it inspired one Richet's students, Louis Bréguet, who was later to become a famous aviation pioneer. During the latter part of 1906, the brothers Louis and Jacques Bréguet began to conduct helicopter experiments of their own, under the guidance of Professor Richet. The Bréguet Brothers were from the famous