Cornu helicopter (first free piloted flight)
Helicóptero de Cornu (primer vuelo libre con piloto)
- Date
- 13 de noviembre de 1907 · confidence high
- Place
- Lisieux, Calvados, France
- Credited to
- Paul Cornu
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A helicopter with two 6 m rotors driven by an Antoinette engine that rose with its inventor about 30 cm off the ground for about 20 seconds. It is the first free flight of a piloted rotary-wing aircraft, though uncontrollable.
The Breguet-Richet Gyroplane lifted with a pilot a few weeks earlier (September 1907) but was held by four men; so Cornu is regarded as the first in free flight.
What it led to
- French and Russian helicopter research
- the practical helicopters of Focke and Sikorsky