Special forms of flight II : Helicopters RICHARD

Helicopters first flew in the minds of men, and then as toys, in ancient China and medieval Europe. But the first man-carrying, rotary wing flight occurred in 1907, when Paul Cornu-yet another Frenchman-flew at a height of a few feet for a few seconds, and it was not until 1938 that the first fully controlled helicopter flights were carried out. Since that time there has been, and still is, an enormous expansion in the development, numbers, and use of rotary wing aircraft throughout the world. In terms of capability and adaptability helicopters have become the aerial workhorses of this century. Quite apart from many military applications helicopters are used in such varied civilian activities as commercial and executive transportation, oilrig support and pipe line inspection, agricultural crop spraying, and of course emergency services. Despite this ubiquity helicopters have tended to remain the Cinderellas of aviation medicine. A consideration of the medical aspects of helicopter operations paints a fairly dismal picture with very few bright patches, but there are indications that this attitude is changing. All the traditional aspects of aviation medicine are relevant to rotary wing flying, but the problems are compounded by movement in a third dimension. Furthermore, helicopters lack the static stability and control damping characteristic of fixed wing aircraft and are inherently more difficult to learn to control.