graham@shark.UUCP (Graham Bromley) (02/18/85)
> In the 1930's the autogyro was a bit of a novelty but I don't > recall it being used by the Armed forces. Any information? The autogiro was not used by the U.S. armed forces. The British Air Ministry bought about 50 from la Cierva (the inventor), and the Italian navy considered using them for shipboard reconnaissance, but that's about it. The autogiro's speed, range and load capacity were inadequate for military use. > When did the first "true" helecopter fly? Debatable - depends what you mean by a true helicopter. If you include propulsion and pitch and yaw control using the rotors, probably the Focke Wulf Fa-61 which first flew in June 1936. This machine was flown by the well known pilot Hanna Reitsch during indoor demonstrations inside a Berlin sports arena. The Fa-61 had a propeller on the nose, but this was for engine cooling more than anything else. > When did the armed forces start using helecopters? (I know they > were used in the Korean War (1952 and thereafter) but I don't > recall ever seeing them in WW2. Did they really develop in > just 7 years?) Helicopters were indeed used during WW2 - the Focke Wulf Fa-61, Fa-223 and Flettner Fl-282 Kolibri by Germany; the Sikorsky VS-300 and Sikorsky R-4 by the U.S. Army. The latter was used in Burma. Over 400 Sikorsky helicopters were built during WW2. Downed pilots and commando troops were helicoptered out of the jungle - their first use for this type of work. The Sikorsky S-55, the first helicopter widely used for troop insertion, first flew in 1945, too late for WW2 use. It was well used in Korea. Hope this answers some of your questions.
wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (02/25/85)
> > When did the armed forces start using helecopters? (I know they > > were used in the Korean War (1952 and thereafter) but I don't > > recall ever seeing them in WW2. Did they really develop in > > just 7 years?) > > Helicopters were indeed used during WW2 - the Focke Wulf > Fa-61, Fa-223 and Flettner Fl-282 Kolibri by Germany; > the Sikorsky VS-300 and Sikorsky R-4 by the U.S. Army. > The latter was used in Burma. Over 400 Sikorsky helicopters > were built during WW2. Downed pilots and commando troops > were helicoptered out of the jungle - their first use for this > type of work. I myself didn't know this, and thanks for posting the info. I think I can hazard a guess as to why the WWII role of helicopters is little known -- most of our knowledge of WWII comes from movies and books. I don't recall seeing a single WWII movie wherein a helicopter was used. Perhaps this was because there are no (or very few) flying examples of these early Sikorsky rotorcraft still in existence? Since helicopters are well known to have high maintenance requirements and spare-parts usage, and few people bothered to keep "museum-examples" of contemporary aircraft until recently, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that none of these still exist. It would probably be fairly expensive and difficult to bring one or more into flyable shape (or recreate them from existing rotorcraft, as was done in Red Dawn), so I doubt that we'll EVER see a true-to-life WWII helicopter in a war film, except for documentary footage. Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA