Existing comment:
Berliner Helicopter:
In 1920, a new kind of flying machine made an appearance at the College Park Airfield. It was not just another type of aircraft -- it was an attempt at a new way to fly altogether. Controlled vertical flight had intrigued many inventors, but none so much as it did Emile Berliner and his son, Henry.
The senior Berliner was already an inventor of some note, having invented the gramophone, the telephone transmitter (mouthpiece) and other devices. He was keenly interested in aviation and was a sponsor of the Washington Aeroplane Company that had been based at the airfield since 1912. However, his real interest was in solving the problems of vertical flight which he had been working on as early as 1907. Henry joined his father in 1919, and took over most of the experimental operation when they moved to College Park the next year.
The initial machines had two contra-rotating propellers, a four wheeled chassis, engine, shutter-like vanes, a seat for the pilot and little else. While the machine rose quite easily from the ground there was still a need for more lateral control and an engine with more power. |