Heinrich Focke was a German professor who founded the Focke-Wulf Airplane company. In the 1930s, he began working on helicopters. His research focused on the problem of how to control the rotaries. In 1932, Focke built a model helicopter, but it took 4 years for him to build a full-scale one. In 1936, Focke and Read More…
The Wright brothers are generally credited with developing the airplane, but helicopters have a much longer and troubled history. Engineers, inventors, and scientists around the world worked to turn the idea of the “gyroplane” into a working machine. But they lacked the necessary knowledge to control the aeronautical forces that lifted a helicopter off the Read More…
At the beginning of 1923, Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish engineer, developed a rotor blade design and articulated rotor blades. Cierva used a flexible hinge to attach the blades to a shaft. Once the articulated rotor blades began moving, the hinge enabled Cierva to control the lift created by the blades. Once he figured Read More…