Helicopter Aircraft. helicopter, Aircraft with one or more power-driven horizontal rotors that enable it to take off and land vertically, move in any direction, or remain stationary in the air. Since a rotor is essentially a rotating airfoil, a helicopter is often described as a rotary-wing aircraft, in contrast to a conventional fixed-wing airplane. One of the earliest ideas for flying, it appeared in China and Renaissance Europe as a toy and in Leonardo da Vinci’s designs. The Frenchman Paul Cornu made the first manned flight in 1907. Igor Sikorsky produced the first successful prototype in 1939, which was followed. A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine driven rotors. In contrast with fixed-wing aircraft, this allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing 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- (ἕλιξ) = "twisted, curved" and pteron (πτερόν) = "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.
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