The first
helicopter as we know them today was designed by Heinrich Focke in 1936. The first prototype of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, had its maiden flight on June 26, 1936 with Ewald Rohlfs at the controls.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP8q17pluaP-1OOOcF05HKbZAJ1QWhapOL10QEwqkblIrYQw3UDC_130Eqwnxn6d2V_-QayuNWUktxxArlkG3v6_OydoSG6natNFNLskuORpYWbXf6eOXGdKMM8nQenbeRwVFaMBtmyhUP/w640-h480/800px-Focke-Wulf_Fw_61_vr.jpg) |
A replica of Fw 61, ILA 2006 at the Hubschraubermuseum in Bückeburg |
Glaswegian Kenneth Watson became the world’s first passenger to ride in a helicopter in October, 1939. The development of the aircraft — a Weir 6 — was halted soon afterwards because of World War II.
Russian-born aeronautics engineer Igor Sikorsky emigrated to the U.S. after World War I and became known as the ‘father of the helicopter’. The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff helped him start his aviation company in 1923 with a personal cheque for $5,000.
Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today. The first flight of the VS-300 was in May 1940.
Sikorsky's success with the VS-300 led to the R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.
Helicopters were used in warfare for the first time when the 1st Air Commando Group used a Sikorsky R-4 in April 1944 for a combat search and rescue operation in the China-Burma-India border area.
The Sikorsky S-51, the first helicopter to be built for civilian instead of military use, made its first flight in 1946.