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Helicopters - The Rotary-Wing Aircraft Originally Thought Up By Leonardo Da Vinci

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Unlike "Fixed-Wing" Aircraft, Helicopters Have a Spinning Set of Blades that Provides Their Lift!

Helicopters are amazing aircraft -- they resemble the dragonflies (and the Ancient Chinese made toys that incorporated some of these features that include the major principles of helicopter flight). These aircraft can not only can move forward (like regular aircraft) but with a skilled pilot can also hover and move backwards and sideways with dramatic precision and agility.

My first personal experiences with helicopters was when my folks took my sister and me to an Armed Forces Day exhibition at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range near where we lived in New Mexico. One of the aerial presentations involved a trio of helicopters imitating "trained lions" .... rolling some 50-gallon drums across the runway and setting down on small wooden platforms.... with a "trainer" controller guiding them. Amusing. I'm not sure which helicopters these were, but they could have been Hiller YH-23 or Bell XH-13F models. Later, I recognized these helicopters as those featured as rescue aircraft in the movie M.A.S.H. and the subsequent television series.

A few years later, I acquired a plastic model of the Bell 204 / 205 UH-1 Iroquois (aka AH-1 "Huey" Cobra) . The green plastic model was a full 2-feet long, but was very detailed. And I enjoyed being able to see what the innards looked like--particularly its 850 shaft-horsepower Lycoming T-53 engine.

When we moved from New Mexico to the island of Guam in the Western Pacific, we occasionally saw U.S. Navy LSTs (Landing-Ship Transport) come in to the Navy Base with the Bell Hueys on their decks.

Contents at a Glance

As described by a life-long helicopter p...
Helicopters as Decoration? Yup.
Helicopter Fly-By
Helicopters Are Useful Aircraft for Many...
California Regional Park Police Search a...
Helicopters of All Kinds! Colorful Addit...

As described by a life-long helicopter pilot:

"A helicopter is an assembly of forty thousand loose pieces, flying more or less in formation"
-- from a life-long helicopter pilot

Helicopters as Decoration? Yup.

Helicopter Fly-By

Helicopters Are Useful Aircraft for Many Tasks

California Shock Trauma Air Rescue (CALSTAR) Helicopter

Helicopters now are very common sights all around us in most areas of the world. In addition to the military uses of these aircraft, they are useful for many other tasks.

Unlike most fixed wing aircraft, helicopters can take off and land from streets, building tops, parking lots, football fields, golf courses, and other reasonably flat and unobstructed areas without much trouble. This feature makes them perfect as quick response vehicles for search-and-rescue, police activities, news reporting, medical response, and other uses.

If you live in major metropolitan areas .... with lots of traffic, you probably have seen the TV and radio station helicopters flying overhead while they're doing the rush hour traffic reports. They are also considered "quick response" for fast-breaking news stories that might be less readily accessible by land travel.

Many hospitals keep a medical-response helicopter on their roof or parking area for "Medi-Air-Evac" responses. When time is critical for saving lives, it's hard to beat a helicopter to get in and get out and over to medical facilities.

When hikers get lost or hurt in some of our wilderness parks and other recreational areas, sometimes the only way a rescue team can get up to these folks is by helicopter.

The U.S. Coast Guard uses helicopters to not only patrol our coasts, but also to rescue sick or injured sailors from their ships so they can be quickly transported to medical facilities.

Farmers and ranchers sometimes use helicopters to inspect their fences, fields, crops, and herds. And again, to locate and rescue sick or hurt livestock. During times of bad blizzards or flooding that has stranded livestock away from their regular food source, ranchers will deliver food to the isolated animals by helicopter--they'll toss bales of hay or other food out of the copter to the animals below.

Also, if you go to any tourist attraction areas, you can take Tours by Helicopter -- San Francisco, New York City, Miami, Honolulu/Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii (Big Island), Las Vegas, Seattle, and the Grand Canyon... all have their own various tour operators offering Helicopter Tours.

California Regional Park Police Search and Rescue Helicopter

Helicopters - The Rotary-Wing Aircraft Originally Thought Up By Leonardo Da Vinci

Unlike "Fixed-Wing" Aircraft, Helicopters Have a Spinning Set of Blades that Provides Their Lift!

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

As described by a life-long helicopter pilot:

Helicopters as Decoration? Yup.

Helicopters Are Useful Aircraft for Many Tasks

Helicopters of All Kinds! Colorful Additions to Your Collection!

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Helicopters by the Bay -- eBay, That Is!

Helicopters in Motion ... On the Big Screen

(Depending on how big your screen is!)

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