What are your thoughts on the helicopters of World War Two? Did you know that helicopters were used during the war? Welcome back! If you are new here make sure to hit subscribe to expand your knowledge on Military History and join the growing Premier History Community!
I did know they being used in World War 2, but I did not know in that amount of extensive uses. I thought they were just for bringing high-ranking officers From A to B.
If you look closely at that second German production helicopter it does NOT have a single rotor. It has two interleaving rotors mounted side by side and offset by 90 degrees to each other.
For certain it never reached 7.000m altitude. This can only special purpose helis of today. The two engines would have been way too heavy to make this possible. I remember 10 years ago or something there was the first fly above the Mt. Everest.
They already foretold they could eventually be used to resupply a future Space Station, which could be, say, at a 420 kms high orbit. Being choppers and thus able to stay put, they wouldn't have too much trouble in outer space with... holdonasec there... yeah has to have been a typo 😂🤣 Or a voice'o, as the previous commenter suggested 🙂.
The 1st combat rescue mission was carried out by a Sikorsky YR-4 in Burma in April 1944. This mission was a great adventure for the distance to be covered and for only being able to take one survivor at a time, there were 4 in total, I believe that deserves a video, do you agree?
@@mandernachluca3774 I don't know about the rescue of a BF-109 pilot, what I've read is about transporting a downed fighter without a pilot. If you can provide the source of this information, I would appreciate it.
The FL 282 was still a 2 rotor design. They where both located at the top. They where angled outward slightly and timed at a 90 degree offset to prevent the blades from colliding
@@martinsaunders2942 Right, and not a coincidence. Anton Flettner came to the USA under Operation Paperclip (not just rocket engineers!) and became the chief designer at Kaman.... I talk about the history of helicopters a little in my book on Ingenuity and Dragonfly published last year by AIAA
Did some work for Lufthansa in a small town called Raunheim a few years ago. There's a street called Anton Flettner Strasse there. He was a very clever guy in more than just the field of helicopters.
Cum sa crezi asemene idiotenie cind avioanele din cel ww altitudinea de lucru era cuprinsa inte 4500 m si rare ori depaseau 5500 - 6000 m altitudine, multe care se incumetau peste 6 000 m cadeau ca bolovanii ( mai ales cele cu carburator) 😅😅😅
@3:02 the Flettner FL-282 is a 'Synchrocopter' it uses 2 intermeshed counter rotating 2-bladed rotor heads, you see this on the Kaman HH-43 Husky and the Kaman K-Max. Helicopters require counter torque in order to not spin out of control. The Synchrocopter is a unique compact design that for smaller helicopters makes a lot of sense. It requires fewer parts over all meaning it can be built as a far cheaper cost than other helicopter types. Besides lower production cost, because there are fewer parts the maintenance and repair costs are greatly reduced. The Kaman K-Max is highly popular because it is so inexpensive to buy, operate, and maintain.
The Kaman helicopters are direct descendants of the Flettner helicopter. Anton Flettner worked for Kaman after the war and developed the K-Max for Kaman
Flettner helicopters had duel rotors intermeshed. It looks like one, but it is two. By using counter rotating rotors, it could be flown without a tail rotor and all the power could be used for lift.
The R4 was also used for Operation Ivory Soap which was classified at the time. They were aircraft repair ships that went from island to island to repair bombers and fighters as they moved across the Pacific. The helicopter ferried parts and mechanics to the airstrip
I did know they being used in World War 2, but I did not know in that amount of extensive uses. I thought they were just for bringing high-ranking officers From A to B.
My mother worked after the war for the company which had build those old German Helicopters. As kids we often climbed around the exhibition helicopters in the front of the factory while waiting for our parents to finish work. They had several of them around their factory even up to the late 1980ths until the company was finally absorbed into Airbus and the local factory got closed.
Look into German test pilot Hannah Reitsch. She was the first person to fly a helicopter indoors. This took place in Berlin before the war. She was also a test pilot for the Me163 Komet. Amazing woman, to say the least. Great video my friend!! Subscribed. 👍🏽
Unfortunately an unrepentant Nazi too though to her dying day. In Untergang she wanted to join him in the bunker and flew the last airplane out of Berlin.
Very good video. I learned several new pointers about when helicopters started. The Germans were greatly ahead with their rotorcraft innovations, especially on the U-Boats. I mainly knew about Korean War helicopter development. Again..very good job..thank you. History reader..just visited Imperial War Museum in London. I highly recommend to visit. From Washinton State, USA.
Dad (still alive) claims to have seen one of submarine based autogiros while an officer in the Merchant Marine in WW2. Before the war his professor at NYU did vibration analysis on Sikorsky's prototype helicopter prototype. The professor hired my dad to go take measurements on the prototype, so dad knew about helicopters before WW2
That is interesting to me. After working on helios in the Army ( mid sixties) I got to real dislike the beasts. Fast forward; years later I was working avionics - big boon in technology that made “radio” aids and communication real practical and “affordable.” By chance meet a couple mad scientist that used VIBRATIONS to rig, adjust and trim rotors and drivelines. It made maintenance a predictable endeavor instead of a hit and proposition. They knew Mr. Sikorsky and found him to be cantankerous (funny historical note).
@@kenrobba5831 Sikorsky was a genius, but, he had a hard time figuring out how to make vibration manageable. That is why Sikorsky hired my dad's professor. Sikorsky paid $10 an hour to the professor and the professor paid my dad 10 cents an hour to take measurements on the prototype. While dad was sitting in the prototype, a gust of wind caused the rotors to spin and the prototype to to take off. When the tie down chain's slack was gone the prototype came down hard. My dad thus claims to be one of the earliest people to fly in a helicopter:-)
If he could clearly see the helicopter, the submarine could have spotted his ship at the same distance without the use of the kite. So why would the submarine go through setting up the kite, which would stop it from quickly diving?
@@doubleT84 se pare ca nu intelegi multe Inaltimea zmeului putea fi contolata si astfel se putea calcula cu usurinta distanta dintre nava observata si submarin si la fel se putea calcula timpul de scufundare si disparitie s-au a ramine mut in adincuri ptru o vreme Greu pune min a pe carte lasa bazagoniile
I had no idea about the U-Boat rotor kite! That’s so cool. Fun fact: there is an ultra-light aircraft design today called the gyro plane which operates in a very similar way to the rotor kite. The main difference today being the aircraft is moved through the air by a propeller instead of a U-Boat!
Hi, Technically the Flettner had two rotors, the were intermeshing and contra rotating to eliminate the torque effect. Sikorski used the tail rotor to achieve the same effect.
You learn something everyday.I'd seen photos of similar WW2 things and assumed that they were autogyros rather than helicopters.I always thought that exotic fare like helicopters and hovercraft were children of the 1950's.
In your Intro , you forgot to mention the Rolling Stones playing while the Hueys are flying over the jungle . I always hear " Painted Black " when i think about that
2:05 Altitude of 7000 kilometers would put it about 17 times higher than International Space Station. Helicopter rotors loose some efficiency up there so this is truly a remarkable aeronautical (or is it cosmonautical) achievement.
Flettner worked for the American Company Karman after WWII. The Karman helicopter still use to this day the double rotor system that Flettner introduced during war.
That was a hell of a Typo, an extra zero there puts it in range of dance flight. But these prototypes were well built and opened the way for today's great helicopters.
Neither the USSR, nor the UK or Japan had any helicopters in WW2. They all experimented with autogyros though. Autogyros were big before WW2, and if not for the early death of Juan de la Cierva, the inventor of the autogyro, the helicopter might be just a curiosity today.
Obviously narrator knew nothing about helicopters, even taking into account mixing up KM''s with mt's there is hardly any modern helicopter's can operate over 7000 mt's never mind a underpowered piston engined one. He also made the mistake of saying the 208 had one rotor when it had 2 contra rotating.
I knew about the German helicopter designs. I did not know that they had been used. I hadn't even heard of the 'powered kite' used by the U-Boats. I also did not know that the Sikorsky design had actually seen use in WWII. Thanks for this video. Much enjoyed.
Takom make a model of the FA 330 in 1/16 scale. Hanna Reitsch gave helicopter demo's inside the Deutschlandhalle in the late 1930's after she taught herself how to fly the thing (Fa 61).
The U-Boat copter was completely powerless and basically a suicide plane. If the spotter marked a destroyer or any other U-Boat Hunter, they unlocked him, made an alarm dive and let him drown.
I had no idea choppers were used in WW2! That’s why I put the question into you tube search engine. So glad I did! I’ve been to Flying Legends Air Shows in England but never seen or heard mention of helicopters!
One advantage of helicopters such as the Flettner and various US and Russian machines was the lack if a need for a tail rotor to compensate for rotor torque.
Ehhhh, still have to drive a second main rotor. Not sure there's a great deal of advantage there or it would have become the standard instead of a tail rotor.
@@shelbyseelbach9568It’s a huge advantage, but more complex to design and build. When I flew MH-53J/Ms, we lost over 1400 shaft horsepower to counter torque, verse all the power going to vertical lift, like an MH-47G. We had similar horsepower numbers, but the Chinook could hover at a higher gross weight than we could. The loss isn’t due to driving another gearbox, it’s the converting of power laterally instead of vertically.
@@shelbyseelbach9568 No, you said there wasn’t a great deal of advantage. It is, which is why some modern helicopters do have that design. But my retort still stands.
Very interesting. I am a retired Navy / civilian helicopter pilot, and I knew about the German designs. However, I did not know about the Sikorsky R-4 seeing use in WW-II. It happens that just last night, I met a young lady who told me that her grandfather had flown helos in that war, and later for the OSS - the forerunner of the CIA.
3:06 The Flettner Fl 282 was NOT a single rotor helicopter. Instead, it had two different rotors mounted on separate shafts mounted at a slight angle to one another. This allowed the two rotors to "intermesh" with one another as they rotated in different directions. The torque generated by each rotor cancelled out the other, and made the more typical tail rotor unneccessary. Flettner later became the chief designer of the Kaman aerospace company, which manufactured intermeshing helicopters later including the HH-43 helicopter used by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. More recently Kaman built the K-MAX aircraft with the intermeshing rotor system, which was designed for use as an "aerial truck" for missions like logging. The U.S. Marine Corps experimented with two unmanned variants in Afghanistan to provide logistics support without the need for trucks to travel dangerous roadways.
At 3:07 the statement of "Unlike the previous designs, this featured a SINGLE rotor above the fuselage." Uh, no. It has two rotors right next to each other. Two. They're close by each other, but there are in fact two. They "intermesh" with each other so they don't hit each other, similar to the beaters of a common kitchen hand mixer (either electric or hand cranked ones).
Autogyros were used by the US before ww2 but were scrapped before the US entered the war. They were demonstrated extensively in the late 1920s. The US army air corps had a demonstration team that traveled the US landing in and taking off from baseball fields in the twenties and thirties. My grandfather had a home movie that he shot with an 8 mm camera of one such demonstration in Chicago in 1932.
@@conveyor2 chill dude. obviously he was speaking about the US because that's what he was certain of given the video and his grandfather and he's likely not an expert on worldwide chopper development in every freaking country. 🙄
There was a scene or two in the little orphan Annie where the millionaire gets around in Autogyros with the film centered in the 1920's era. The Greeks had Gyros since ancient times, but they didn't fly.
I have read in Skorzeny's biography that German helicopters were a possible option for use in the rescue of Mussolini from Gran Sasso in 1943? However they were forced to opt for gliders, due to serviceability problems?
Hi John... from what I've read a Major Mors (? Might have the spelling wrong) decided to go with gliders instead of helicopters. The technology was just too new for his liking... and the gliders could be released at a distance from Gran Sasso, keeping noise to a minimum. I've always been intrigued by this daring, brilliant and successful raid. Skorzeny was quite the soldier!!
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712 Correct spelling. Harald Mors was the main man to plan and lead the raid. Skorzeney, although there, was certainly prone to self-aggrandisement. Today, due to propaganda at the time and subsequently, due to his latter exploits, you would think it all down to Skorzeny?
The Flettner was not a single rotor machine. It had 2 rotors, intermeshing, like later Kaman designs. This required very careful synchronization. The FA-330 was an engineless autogyro. The aircraft shown at 6:21 is a Kellett KD-1B autogyro which, from June 1939 to June 1940, flew U.S. Mail between Camden, NJ and Philadelphia. Kellett later built a couple of experimental intermeshing helicopter designs.
Good video. The 330 was an autogiro, it was not a helicopter. Autogiros have an unpropelled rotor, which starts rotating giving lift when the machine is moved at sufficient speed through the air. The Japanese vehicle you showed clearly was an autogiro too.
My dad was in the 20th Army Air force and he hatted them called them old whirley birds. I think they had a few to transport officers around and medical duties. When they used them in Vietnam he just cursed and called them useless.
Advances in aerospace engineering in both America and the Soviet Union after WW2 owed their designs thanks to the inevitable capture of these advanced flying machines and their engineers and designers. Nazi Germany vastly produced, tested and put into service warbirds, helicopters, guided air-to-surface missiles and anti-aircraft missiles that could only be dreamt of in England and the United States. They were indeed the far superior to anything the allies could produce with their immense resources. Now whether they came too late to turn the tide to win the war or not, it's another story.
An example of the FL282, which I think is called the Kolibri, can be found in the Ottawa air Museum. They used to keep it in the back partly assembled. I don't know if they moved it to the front but it's a cool looking piece.
I knew about the helicopters and autogyros or "kites". But I did not know that the US had helicopters in use "for real" during WW2. Always glad to learn.
My dad built one of those submarine autogyro gliders. a slightly simplified design utilising a car wheels front disc hub as the teeter bar hub and aluminium scaffolding pipes as the chassis. Yes it tether flew during a 40mph wind. This had the blades spinning at 300RPM & Weighed 30 tons on the ends of the 22ft diameter rotors. Unfortunately no video evidence which was such a shame because it ended in an incredibly twisted mess comprising each blade hitting the ground behind the craft once and digging a 18" hole behind it before coming to a complete stop flinging the fuselage in the opposite rotation along with Dad.. This was because he'd tethered it at the centre of gravity rather than at the front of the fuselage therefore it tried to angle itself vertically before going up. I suppose it balanced for a bit on its rudder.. But all of the wheels where off the ground therefore airborne. LOL. Dad and all close by where absolutely fine. :)
Der "Focke Helikopter wurde von Hern HeinrichFocke entwickelt, eigentlich ein Mitinhaber der "Focke-Wulf-Flugzeugwerke". Eingesetzt wurden diese Helikopter auch für die Gebirgsjäger-Truppen, um die Geschütze und andere schwere Lasten in die Berge zu transportieren. Die Flugpionierin "Hanna Reitsch" veranstaltete auch Flugvorführungen in grossen Hallen.
The 2 rotors, side by side, aren’t used anymore. But the biggest helicopter used this configuration. The style of the 282 is the same of the K-Max. Not bad ! But clearly the R4 is the first of our modern and versatile helicopters. Well the add of the « fenestron » by the French is a good and elegant perfectionnement ;)
Credit where credit is due.. the Fokker Archelis Dragon was a very, very impressive , powerful and efficient helicopter for its time. At the end of the war a couple were flown from Germany to Britain…becoming the first helicopter to cross the English Channel.
I think japanese used their 2 seat type also on ships as artillery spotter (cca 200 of them). One version coud carry depth charge for anti submarine warfare. There was a story that germans tried to use theirs for the Musolini rescue. But it had engine truble so they used plane instead (Storch).
If you're talking about the Kayaba Ka-1 or Ka-2, these were autogyros, modified Kellett designs. The Japanese had bought a KD-1 in 1939, but after it was damaged, the Army set Kayaba to work reverse engineering their own. They flew off the Akitsu Maru, which was operated by the Army, but mostly flew from land. They could carry a couple of light depth charges, but were mainly used for spotting Allied submarines.
How about the first world war? Hungarian army conducted experiments with tethered helicopters to substitute the vulnerable observation balloons. The leaders names were colonel Petróczy, engineer Zsurovecz and professor Tódor / Theodore von Kármán. PKZ-1 was a coaxial rotor design driven by electric motor, PKZ-2 was gasoline powered. The later was provisioned for a 2 men crew and a machine gun. None of them ever flew manned, and after PKZ-2 was crashed and destroyed in 1918, the experiment was abandoned.
I've heard that the US Marines tested gyrocopters in the thirties, but I've never heard any details. I'm curious as to why they were not further developed.
From what I can gather it seems to be a combination of a couple of factors. The gyrocopters available at the time suffered from very low top speeds making them less than ideal as a front-line combat aircraft. Their payloads were also too small to be considered for transport roles. That left liaison, though there the increased mechanical complexity of the gyrocopter led to it being superseded by the simpler J-4 and J-5 whose simple construction made them more suitable for austere operating conditions.
De estas cosas nadie hace películas. Nadie tuvo helicópteros antes que Alemania, que los desarrolló y mucho. Gran país con desarrollos que han tenido un empleo mundial extraordinario para todo uso anti incendios para evacuación de heridos y hasta para control de todo tipo, aparte su papel como armamento .
3:12 Looks like the Fl-282 was a dual rotor aircraft. Single engined, but with a split transmission to allow the rotors to intermesh with opposite rotations. Kaman more fully developed the concept for the US military postwar.
What are your thoughts on the helicopters of World War Two? Did you know that helicopters were used during the war?
Welcome back! If you are new here make sure to hit subscribe to expand your knowledge on Military History and join the growing Premier History Community!
I did know they being used in World War 2, but I did not know in that amount of extensive uses. I thought they were just for bringing high-ranking officers
From A to B.
2:04 7 thousand meters or 7km.
Seven thousand kilometers is roughly 4349 thousand miles!
Yes
Yes, existed and were used in combat for reconnaissance. most interesting heli was the flittner kite unpowered U-Boat foldable heli.
"Where Eagles Dare"! The Germans are amazing, they have created absolute marvels of innovative engineering! ❤️💪🇩🇪
If you look closely at that second German production helicopter it does NOT have a single rotor. It has two interleaving rotors mounted side by side and offset by 90 degrees to each other.
Same desing is stil in use - for example Kaman K-Max en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_K-MAX
It also DIDN`T have a ceiling of 7000 Kilometres!!! 1st Helo in Space?
@@moosifer3321 Might have meant 7,000 meters, which would still
be pretty high from what I have read.
@steveyountz9184 right, 7,000m is highly unlikely as that would have required a pressurised cabin. Which I highly doubt this aircraft has.
For certain it never reached 7.000m altitude. This can only special purpose helis of today. The two engines would have been way too heavy to make this possible. I remember 10 years ago or something there was the first fly above the Mt. Everest.
7,000 kilometres ceiling ?? That’s higher than the SR 72!!
Germans were really advanced, that’s around 23,000,000 feet, respect !!
I hope the cabin was pressurized or the pilots had oxygen!
More than the Space Shuttle 🫣
More of a voice'o' than a typo.
They already foretold they could eventually be used to resupply a future Space Station, which could be, say, at a 420 kms high orbit.
Being choppers and thus able to stay put, they wouldn't have too much trouble in outer space with... holdonasec there... yeah has to have been a typo 😂🤣 Or a voice'o, as the previous commenter suggested 🙂.
7000 meters, of course... 😊
The 1st combat rescue mission was carried out by a Sikorsky YR-4 in Burma in April 1944. This mission was a great adventure for the distance to be covered and for only being able to take one survivor at a time, there were 4 in total, I believe that deserves a video, do you agree?
Absolutely, but The History Guy already covered it.
I think the first ever combat rescue under war conditions was actually carried out by an FA 223 Dragon. They rescued a downed BF109G pilot.
@@mandernachluca3774 I don't know about the rescue of a BF-109 pilot, what I've read is about transporting a downed fighter without a pilot. If you can provide the source of this information, I would appreciate it.
@@dukecraig2402 Thanks.
I DO!
The FL 282 was still a 2 rotor design. They where both located at the top. They where angled outward slightly and timed at a 90 degree offset to prevent the blades from colliding
This…it was a syncropter, like the later Kaman Husky and Kaman K Max
@@martinsaunders2942 Right, and not a coincidence. Anton Flettner came to the USA under Operation Paperclip (not just rocket engineers!) and became the chief designer at Kaman.... I talk about the history of helicopters a little in my book on Ingenuity and Dragonfly published last year by AIAA
@@martinsaunders2942 Also other Flettner designs Kaman also had a few others.
Did some work for Lufthansa in a small town called Raunheim a few years ago. There's a street called Anton Flettner Strasse there. He was a very clever guy in more than just the field of helicopters.
2:06 "Had an altitude of 7000 kilometer". That is very impressive. 🙂
Indeed...Not only did the Germans use helicopters during WW2, they were actually able to send them into space...They were good...
This is how they built that secret Nazi base on the moon I saw in a documentary a few years back. Think it was called Iron Sky.
Cum sa crezi asemene idiotenie cind avioanele din cel ww altitudinea de lucru era cuprinsa inte 4500 m si rare ori depaseau 5500 - 6000 m altitudine, multe care se incumetau peste 6 000 m cadeau ca bolovanii ( mai ales cele cu carburator) 😅😅😅
@@jeromewagschal9485I think he meant meters, which is still pretty impressive
@@qdaniele97 Yes, of course 🙂
That's still pretty high for a helicopter... Especially during WW2...
An altitude of 7000 kilometers is quite something....
Even Von Braun would have been impressed😂
Legend has it that it's still up there!
Yes, the Germans were the first to go into orbit.
??????? Metres 😂NOT Kilometres !!! lol g
7000 meters.
@3:02 the Flettner FL-282 is a 'Synchrocopter' it uses 2 intermeshed counter rotating 2-bladed rotor heads, you see this on the Kaman HH-43 Husky and the Kaman K-Max. Helicopters require counter torque in order to not spin out of control. The Synchrocopter is a unique compact design that for smaller helicopters makes a lot of sense. It requires fewer parts over all meaning it can be built as a far cheaper cost than other helicopter types. Besides lower production cost, because there are fewer parts the maintenance and repair costs are greatly reduced. The Kaman K-Max is highly popular because it is so inexpensive to buy, operate, and maintain.
The Kaman helicopters are direct descendants of the Flettner helicopter. Anton Flettner worked for Kaman after the war and developed the K-Max for Kaman
Flettner helicopters had duel rotors intermeshed. It looks like one, but it is two. By using counter rotating rotors, it could be flown without a tail rotor and all the power could be used for lift.
The R4 was also used for Operation Ivory Soap which was classified at the time. They were aircraft repair ships that went from island to island to repair bombers and fighters as they moved across the Pacific. The helicopter ferried parts and mechanics to the airstrip
Best video I've seen on the subject yet!
I did know they being used in World War 2, but I did not know in that amount of extensive uses. I thought they were just for bringing high-ranking officers
From A to B.
I always wished they would get more representation in gaming.
They're incredibly underrated for what it's worth.
introducing war thunder, a game where the vr people in helicopters will destroy your tank
Studied each and every one of the helicopters of ww2 ! Glad you reminded me of them !
My mother worked after the war for the company which had build those old German Helicopters. As kids we often climbed around the exhibition helicopters in the front of the factory while waiting for our parents to finish work. They had several of them around their factory even up to the late 1980ths until the company was finally absorbed into Airbus and the local factory got closed.
Look into German test pilot Hannah Reitsch. She was the first person to fly a helicopter indoors. This took place in Berlin before the war.
She was also a test pilot for the Me163 Komet.
Amazing woman, to say the least.
Great video my friend!!
Subscribed. 👍🏽
The name is „Reitsch“, Hanna Reitsch - with a „t“ in the middle.
@clausbremen Ah, thank you, Claus. I must admit, a bit of time has gone past since I learned about her.
Off to edit now...
🍻
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712, that bird flew a lot of birds.
Unfortunately an unrepentant Nazi too though to her dying day. In Untergang she wanted to join him in the bunker and flew the last airplane out of Berlin.
It wasn't a helicopter that she flew indoors, it was a autogyro aka a gyrocopter.
Very good video. I learned several new pointers about when helicopters started. The Germans were greatly ahead with their rotorcraft innovations, especially on the U-Boats. I mainly knew about Korean War helicopter development. Again..very good job..thank you. History reader..just visited Imperial War Museum in London. I highly recommend to visit. From Washinton State, USA.
Thanks for the support Paul, glad you enjoyed the video
2:04 "Altitude of 7000km" it's a monster :D
WOW! "7000 kilo meters"! You get an astronaut badge for that.
02:07 -- "...7,000 kilometers, or 23,000 feet."
-- 7,000 kilometers = 2.29 million feet
The RAF had some Sikorsky R-4's from late 1944. They were used by 529 Squadron for radar calibration. Previously they used Avro Rota autogyros.
Technically the Flettner is a Syncrote (intermeshing rotor helicopter). Great video always nice to see early helicopters.
Dad (still alive) claims to have seen one of submarine based autogiros while an officer in the Merchant Marine in WW2. Before the war his professor at NYU did vibration analysis on Sikorsky's prototype helicopter prototype. The professor hired my dad to go take measurements on the prototype, so dad knew about helicopters before WW2
That is interesting to me. After working on helios in the Army ( mid sixties) I got to real dislike the beasts.
Fast forward; years later I was working avionics - big boon in technology that made “radio” aids and communication real practical and “affordable.”
By chance meet a couple mad scientist that used VIBRATIONS to rig, adjust and trim rotors and drivelines.
It made maintenance a predictable endeavor instead of a hit and proposition.
They knew Mr. Sikorsky and found him to be cantankerous (funny historical note).
@@kenrobba5831 Sikorsky was a genius, but, he had a hard time figuring out how to make vibration manageable. That is why Sikorsky hired my dad's professor. Sikorsky paid $10 an hour to the professor and the professor paid my dad 10 cents an hour to take measurements on the prototype. While dad was sitting in the prototype, a gust of wind caused the rotors to spin and the prototype to to take off. When the tie down chain's slack was gone the prototype came down hard. My dad thus claims to be one of the earliest people to fly in a helicopter:-)
If he could clearly see the helicopter, the submarine could have spotted his ship at the same distance without the use of the kite. So why would the submarine go through setting up the kite, which would stop it from quickly diving?
@@saltyroe3179 cred maidegraba era pus pe glume
@@doubleT84 se pare ca nu intelegi multe Inaltimea zmeului putea fi contolata si astfel se putea calcula cu usurinta distanta dintre nava observata si submarin si la fel se putea calcula timpul de scufundare si disparitie s-au a ramine mut in adincuri ptru o vreme Greu pune min a pe carte lasa bazagoniile
Great video!! Learn something new every day!!!
Great documentary.. i know helicopter but not the history.. i hope this channel grow. Keep it up!..
I had no idea about the U-Boat rotor kite! That’s so cool.
Fun fact: there is an ultra-light aircraft design today called the gyro plane which operates in a very similar way to the rotor kite. The main difference today being the aircraft is moved through the air by a propeller instead of a U-Boat!
There's one of those German gyro-kite/gyro-gliders in a museum near me. Fascinated me as a kid.
What a great video, had no idea!!
Hi, Technically the Flettner had two rotors, the were intermeshing and contra rotating to eliminate the torque effect. Sikorski used the tail rotor to achieve the same effect.
the 282 is a twin rota , 2 two blade rotas crossing each outher
You learn something everyday.I'd seen photos of similar WW2 things and assumed that they were autogyros rather than helicopters.I always thought that exotic fare like helicopters and hovercraft were children of the 1950's.
In your Intro , you forgot to mention the Rolling Stones playing while the Hueys are flying over the jungle . I always hear " Painted Black " when i think about that
All that reminds me of the film "Apocalypse now", with the Stones singing "Satisfaction" ...
damn germany really had outer space helis in WW2 @ 2:06 "7000 kilometers" should be "7000 meters"
7000 kilometers ? that is almost geosynchronous orbit...
2:05 Altitude of 7000 kilometers would put it about 17 times higher than International Space Station. Helicopter rotors loose some efficiency up there so this is truly a remarkable aeronautical (or is it cosmonautical) achievement.
Interesting to see the smaller copters being thrown around the sky like stunt machines. The only thing not done was inverted!
The Flettner Kolibri is one of my favorite crafts, we need more synchrocoptors in this generation.
Flettner worked for the American Company Karman after WWII. The Karman helicopter still use to this day the double rotor system that Flettner introduced during war.
That was a hell of a Typo, an extra zero there puts it in range of dance flight. But these prototypes were well built and opened the way for today's great helicopters.
Neither the USSR, nor the UK or Japan had any helicopters in WW2. They all experimented with autogyros though. Autogyros were big before WW2, and if not for the early death of Juan de la Cierva, the inventor of the autogyro, the helicopter might be just a curiosity today.
Altitude of 7,000km??? (22,965,879 Feet) Hahahahaha
Obviously narrator knew nothing about helicopters, even taking into account mixing up KM''s with mt's there is hardly any modern helicopter's can operate over 7000 mt's never mind a underpowered piston engined one. He also made the mistake of saying the 208 had one rotor when it had 2 contra rotating.
@@michaeltagg492 there are actually a few with a service ceiling of 7000m, being pushed hard some of them can land on mount everests 8848m summit.
I knew about the German helicopter designs. I did not know that they had been used. I hadn't even heard of the 'powered kite' used by the U-Boats.
I also did not know that the Sikorsky design had actually seen use in WWII.
Thanks for this video. Much enjoyed.
Takom make a model of the FA 330 in 1/16 scale.
Hanna Reitsch gave helicopter demo's inside the Deutschlandhalle in the late 1930's after she taught herself how to fly the thing (Fa 61).
Kid: Mom, when do helicopters exist?
Mom: it's a long story, a long story that cannot be tell the whole script
Great video
i knew they used them ... well done video thanks
The U-Boat copter was completely powerless and basically a suicide plane. If the spotter marked a destroyer or any other U-Boat Hunter, they unlocked him, made an alarm dive and let him drown.
I had no idea choppers were used in WW2! That’s why I put the question into you tube search engine. So glad I did! I’ve been to Flying Legends Air Shows in England but never seen or heard mention of helicopters!
Awsome footage :)
Great video, but I miss a reference to Juan de la Cierva's work on gyroplanes.
One advantage of helicopters such as the Flettner and various US and Russian machines was the lack if a need for a tail rotor to compensate for rotor torque.
Ehhhh, still have to drive a second main rotor. Not sure there's a great deal of advantage there or it would have become the standard instead of a tail rotor.
@@shelbyseelbach9568It’s a huge advantage, but more complex to design and build. When I flew MH-53J/Ms, we lost over 1400 shaft horsepower to counter torque, verse all the power going to vertical lift, like an MH-47G. We had similar horsepower numbers, but the Chinook could hover at a higher gross weight than we could. The loss isn’t due to driving another gearbox, it’s the converting of power laterally instead of vertically.
@@johnhickman106 My statement stands. If it was worth it, it would be the norm, which it isn't.
@@shelbyseelbach9568 No, you said there wasn’t a great deal of advantage. It is, which is why some modern helicopters do have that design. But my retort still stands.
@@johnhickman106 When did I say there isn't a great deal of advantage? I'll wait?
First time I've seen, let alone even heard of helicopter use in WWII. Thumbs up!
Very interesting video thank you.
Great job thank you 👍
Hi, I'm sorry but the Flettener helicopter that is shown on the video seems to have two counter rotative rotors, not a single one. Great video!
Very interesting. I am a retired Navy / civilian helicopter pilot, and I knew about the German designs. However, I did not know about the Sikorsky R-4 seeing use in WW-II. It happens that just last night, I met a young lady who told me that her grandfather had flown helos in that war, and later for the OSS - the forerunner of the CIA.
3:06 The Flettner Fl 282 was NOT a single rotor helicopter. Instead, it had two different rotors mounted on separate shafts mounted at a slight angle to one another. This allowed the two rotors to "intermesh" with one another as they rotated in different directions. The torque generated by each rotor cancelled out the other, and made the more typical tail rotor unneccessary. Flettner later became the chief designer of the Kaman aerospace company, which manufactured intermeshing helicopters later including the HH-43 helicopter used by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. More recently Kaman built the K-MAX aircraft with the intermeshing rotor system, which was designed for use as an "aerial truck" for missions like logging. The U.S. Marine Corps experimented with two unmanned variants in Afghanistan to provide logistics support without the need for trucks to travel dangerous roadways.
At 3:07 the statement of "Unlike the previous designs, this featured a SINGLE rotor above the fuselage."
Uh, no. It has two rotors right next to each other. Two. They're close by each other, but there are in fact two. They "intermesh" with each other so they don't hit each other, similar to the beaters of a common kitchen hand mixer (either electric or hand cranked ones).
MURICA: HELI-copter!
GERMANY: HEIL-copter!
...and that's why the war started, kids.
Autogyros were used by the US before ww2 but were scrapped before the US entered the war. They were demonstrated extensively in the late 1920s. The US army air corps had a demonstration team that traveled the US landing in and taking off from baseball fields in the twenties and thirties. My grandfather had a home movie that he shot with an 8 mm camera of one such demonstration in Chicago in 1932.
Autogyros were used in many countries in the 20s and 30s. Not everything revolves around the States.
@@conveyor2 chill dude. obviously he was speaking about the US because that's what he was certain of given the video and his grandfather and he's likely not an expert on worldwide chopper development in every freaking country. 🙄
There was a scene or two in the little orphan Annie where the millionaire gets around in Autogyros with the film centered in the 1920's era. The Greeks had Gyros since ancient times, but they didn't fly.
I have read in Skorzeny's biography that German helicopters were a possible option for use in the rescue of Mussolini from Gran Sasso in 1943? However they were forced to opt for gliders, due to serviceability problems?
Hi John... from what I've read a Major Mors (? Might have the spelling wrong) decided to go with gliders instead of helicopters. The technology was just too new for his liking... and the gliders could be released at a distance from Gran Sasso, keeping noise to a minimum.
I've always been intrigued by this daring, brilliant and successful raid. Skorzeny was quite the soldier!!
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712 Correct spelling. Harald Mors was the main man to plan and lead the raid. Skorzeney, although there, was certainly prone to self-aggrandisement. Today, due to propaganda at the time and subsequently, due to his latter exploits, you would think it all down to Skorzeny?
2:08 damn 7000km? The Germans left the planet with an early helicopter
The Flettner was not a single rotor machine. It had 2 rotors, intermeshing, like later Kaman designs. This required very careful synchronization. The FA-330 was an engineless autogyro. The aircraft shown at 6:21 is a Kellett KD-1B autogyro which, from June 1939 to June 1940, flew U.S. Mail between Camden, NJ and Philadelphia. Kellett later built a couple of experimental intermeshing helicopter designs.
7000 km altitude is really high! Seems to be a part of the space program.
Good video. The 330 was an autogiro, it was not a helicopter. Autogiros have an unpropelled rotor, which starts rotating giving lift when the machine is moved at sufficient speed through the air. The Japanese vehicle you showed clearly was an autogiro too.
The Avro Rota, an autogyro, was used to calibrate costal radar system on the british coast. Another little interesting plane.
My dad was in the 20th Army Air force and he hatted them called them old whirley birds. I think they had a few to transport officers around and medical duties. When they used them in Vietnam he just cursed and called them useless.
7000 kilometer height ? It must be going to the moon
Advances in aerospace engineering in both America and the Soviet Union after WW2 owed their designs thanks to the inevitable capture of these advanced flying machines and their engineers and designers. Nazi Germany vastly produced, tested and put into service warbirds, helicopters, guided air-to-surface missiles and anti-aircraft missiles that could only be dreamt of in England and the United States. They were indeed the far superior to anything the allies could produce with their immense resources. Now whether they came too late to turn the tide to win the war or not, it's another story.
You didn't mention Mussolini's prison break!
An example of the FL282, which I think is called the Kolibri, can be found in the Ottawa air Museum. They used to keep it in the back partly assembled. I don't know if they moved it to the front but it's a cool looking piece.
3:10 the Fletner Kolibri had two intermeshing rotors - and no tail rotor. Just like the Kaman Huskie.
02:08 Seven THOUSAND Kms. WHOAA!! o__o
P.S: I know it's meant to be 7000 metres :) :)
The Fa223 was a beast far far ahead of its time. Highly derated according to pilot and field reports.
Very interesting.
Excellent video, I knew about German chopera.
1931 was the first successful Auto-Gyro, a precourser to Helicopters. 'Featured' in some early films.
I ❤ Helicopters. Especially the tilt rotors and compound helicopters.
As noted by another viewer, the FL282 had 2 counter rotating rotors.
2:08 7000 km ?????
I found out about the American WW2 helicopters in 1972 because a friend had a collection of
WW2 aviation magazines.
The Dragon had an altitude of 7000 KM?
It really was a secret prototype for the V2
I knew about the helicopters and autogyros or "kites". But I did not know that the US had helicopters in use "for real" during WW2. Always glad to learn.
My dad built one of those submarine autogyro gliders. a slightly simplified design utilising a car wheels front disc hub as the teeter bar hub and aluminium scaffolding pipes as the chassis. Yes it tether flew during a 40mph wind. This had the blades spinning at 300RPM & Weighed 30 tons on the ends of the 22ft diameter rotors.
Unfortunately no video evidence which was such a shame because it ended in an incredibly twisted mess comprising each blade hitting the ground behind the craft once and digging a 18" hole behind it before coming to a complete stop flinging the fuselage in the opposite rotation along with Dad..
This was because he'd tethered it at the centre of gravity rather than at the front of the fuselage therefore it tried to angle itself vertically before going up.
I suppose it balanced for a bit on its rudder.. But all of the wheels where off the ground therefore airborne.
LOL. Dad and all close by where absolutely fine. :)
Der "Focke Helikopter wurde von Hern HeinrichFocke entwickelt, eigentlich ein Mitinhaber der "Focke-Wulf-Flugzeugwerke". Eingesetzt wurden diese Helikopter auch für die Gebirgsjäger-Truppen, um die Geschütze und andere schwere Lasten in die Berge zu transportieren. Die Flugpionierin "Hanna Reitsch" veranstaltete auch Flugvorführungen in grossen Hallen.
The 2 rotors, side by side, aren’t used anymore. But the biggest helicopter used this configuration. The style of the 282 is the same of the K-Max. Not bad ! But clearly the R4 is the first of our modern and versatile helicopters. Well the add of the « fenestron » by the French is a good and elegant perfectionnement ;)
Credit where credit is due.. the Fokker Archelis Dragon was a very, very impressive , powerful and efficient helicopter for its time. At the end of the war a couple were flown from Germany to Britain…becoming the first helicopter to cross the English Channel.
That's Focke-Achgelis.
Good question. Why isn’t this topic covered more?
the "fu*ker Ach gayless" caught me of guard
I think japanese used their 2 seat type also on ships as artillery spotter (cca 200 of them). One version coud carry depth charge for anti submarine warfare. There was a story that germans tried to use theirs for the Musolini rescue. But it had engine truble so they used plane instead (Storch).
If you're talking about the Kayaba Ka-1 or Ka-2, these were autogyros, modified Kellett designs. The Japanese had bought a KD-1 in 1939, but after it was damaged, the Army set Kayaba to work reverse engineering their own. They flew off the Akitsu Maru, which was operated by the Army, but mostly flew from land. They could carry a couple of light depth charges, but were mainly used for spotting Allied submarines.
@@CAMacKenzie Thank you for clarification and the tip, my source was some documentary, now i can research better.
Saw a Fletner 282 on display at the US Air & Space Museum in Washington DC many decades ago.
How about the first world war?
Hungarian army conducted experiments with tethered helicopters to substitute the vulnerable observation balloons. The leaders names were colonel Petróczy, engineer Zsurovecz and professor Tódor / Theodore von Kármán. PKZ-1 was a coaxial rotor design driven by electric motor, PKZ-2 was gasoline powered. The later was provisioned for a 2 men crew and a machine gun.
None of them ever flew manned, and after PKZ-2 was crashed and destroyed in 1918, the experiment was abandoned.
I've heard that the US Marines tested gyrocopters in the thirties, but I've never heard any details. I'm curious as to why they were not further developed.
From what I can gather it seems to be a combination of a couple of factors. The gyrocopters available at the time suffered from very low top speeds making them less than ideal as a front-line combat aircraft. Their payloads were also too small to be considered for transport roles. That left liaison, though there the increased mechanical complexity of the gyrocopter led to it being superseded by the simpler J-4 and J-5 whose simple construction made them more suitable for austere operating conditions.
Veery veery good.🙏
The one Hannah Reich flew in the stadium I believe was an auto gyro
De estas cosas nadie hace películas. Nadie tuvo helicópteros antes que Alemania, que los desarrolló y mucho. Gran país con desarrollos que han tenido un empleo mundial extraordinario para todo uso anti incendios para evacuación de heridos y hasta para control de todo tipo, aparte su papel como armamento .
2:10 7000 kms! And to think, today’s helicopters can only fly in our atmosphere 😂
I knew the Germans had dabbled into helicopters but this was a good video that definitely put everything into perspective nicely !!
Good video
The modern version of flattener fl282 intermeshing rotors is the K-MAX COPTER!
3:12 Looks like the Fl-282 was a dual rotor aircraft. Single engined, but with a split transmission to allow the rotors to intermesh with opposite rotations. Kaman more fully developed the concept for the US military postwar.
2:07 It's was a space helicopter!🤣🤣🤣
(Altitude is quoted as "7.000km" at time-stamp)
Thank you I had no idea Chappers were used in WWII now can you do a story on Germans useing those experimental jey pacpacks in WWII