Helicopter designs before 1900

Leonardo da Vinci helicopter project 1493 The first studies on helicopters were well in advance of the first airplanes. Leonardo da ... read more ... The very first self-propelled model of a lifting airscrew seems to have been the spring-driven ... read more ... Lomonosov helicopter project 1754 Launoy & Bienvenu helicopter project 1784 A year after the first successful ascent by a hot-air balloon, Launoy, a naturalist, helped ... read more ... Another model of a vehicle for vertical flight invented by Lambertgye ... read more ... Lambertgye helicopter project 1818 Sarti helicopter project 1828 Surviving designs of the "Aereo Veliero" (aerial sailing ship) by Vittorio Sarti, a Florentine cobbler ... read more ... Picture above: machine for vertical flight designed by Sir George Cayley, one of the great ... read more ... Cayley helicopter project 1843 Cossus helicopter project 1845 The first helicopter patent granted by the British Patent Office related to an aircraft with ... read more ... Bright helicopter project 1861 Nelson helicopter project 1861 Long before the Wright brothers were sailing in their experimental gliders over the sand dunes ... read more ... Captain Powers was inspired to invent his flying machine by the Union blockade of Confederate ... read more ... Powers helicopter project 1862 Crowell helicopter project 1862 In West Dennis, Massachusetts, meanwhile, another inventor was pressing the New Yorker for the honor ... read more ... If practical results were not forthcoming, there was one memorable advance achieved during this period ... read more ... Amecourt helicopter project 1863 Wootton helicopter project 1866 The mid-1800's was a banner time for American inventors to try their hand at designing ... read more ... Shortly before his death at the age of thirty Penaud revived a sort of "Chinese ... read more ... Penaud helicopter project 1870 Rykachev helicopter project 1871 As early as 1860, M.A.Rykachev, a Russian, began investigating "aerial propellers able to propel themselves ... read more ... The model produced by these two French workers had a "gunpowder engine", which may be ... read more ... Pomes & Pauze helicopter project 1871 Achenbach helicopter project 1874 Achenbach, a German, designed an aircraft with a single rotor to ensure lift and also ... read more ... Other American inventors during this era who sought to solve the problem of mechanical flight ... read more ... Ward helicopter project 1876 Dieuaide helicopter project 1877 The second autogyro built by Vuitton had a small engine which drove a tractor propeller ... read more ... Vuitton helicopter project 1877 Forlanini helicopter project 1877 An Italian professor, Enrico Forlanini, had an ingenious idea for overcoming the weight of a ... read more ... In the same year as the Italian Forlanini, Gastel used a compressed air engine to ... read more ... Castel helicopter project 1877 Melikoff helicopter project 1879 In 1879 Melikoff designed a model helicopter fitted with an airscrew having the shape of ... read more ... In 1879 John Greenough came out with a patented design that was a slight improvement ... read more ... Greenough helicopter project 1879 Quinby helicopter project 1879 A month before Greenough received his helicopter patent, another was issued to Watson Quinby on ... read more ... In 1888 another Southerner, Edward Johnston of Alabama, entered the aviation field with his ideas ... read more ... Johnston helicopter project 1888