Helicopter

In 1877, Enrico Forlanini developed an unmanned helicopter powered by a steam engine. It rose to a height of 13 meters, where it remained for some 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan.

Paul Cornu's helicopter, built in 1907, was the first manned flying machine to have risen from the ground using rotating wings instead of fixed wings.

The first time a manned helicopter is known to have risen off the ground was in late September 1907 within France in a "tethered" test flight, and another French helicopter made the first rotary-winged "free flight" two months later at Lisenux, France. The first successful rotorcraft of any type, however, wasn't a true helicopter, but an autogyro invented by Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva in 1919. These kind of rotorcraft were mainly used until the development of modern helicopters, when, for some reason, they became largely neglected, although the idea has since been resurrected several times. Since the first practical helicopter was the Focke Achgelis Fw 61 (Germany, 1936), the autogyro's golden age only lasted around 20 years.

Progress before World War I (1914–1918)

Main article: World War I Aviation

German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917

Almost as soon as they were invented, planes were drafted for military service. The first country to use planes for military purposes was Italy, whose planes made reconnaissance, bombing and shelling correction military flights during the Italian-Turkish war (September 1911 – October 1912), in Libya. First mission (a reconnaissance) happened on 23 October 1911. First bombing of enemy columns was the 1st November 1911.^[36] Then Bulgaria followed this example. Its planes attacked and reconnoitered the Ottoman positions during the First Balkan War 1912–13. The first war to see major use of planes in offensive, defensive and reconnaissance capabilities was World War I. The Allies and Central Powers both used planes extensively.

While the concept of using the aeroplane as a weapon of war was generally laughed at before World War I,^[37] the idea of using it for photography was one that was not lost on any of the major forces. All of the major forces in Europe had light aircraft, typically derived from pre-war sporting designs, attached to theirreconnaissance

departments. Radiotelephones were also being explored on airplanes, notably the SCR-68, as communication between pilots and ground commander grew more and more important.

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