The Birth of the Bell Helicopter

[C. Beaty]

The Birth of the Bell Helicopter:

The Birth of the Bell Helicopter (Part 1) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uir9Engj4v4)

A series of 4 clips showing Arthur Young’s early experiments, narrated by Bertram Kelley, Young’s assistant who became VP of engineering at Bell Textron.

Young was a mathematician and Kelley was a physicist.

Young invented the underslung seesaw rotor and the Bell stabilizer bar.

[RotoPlane]

Thank you Chuck....this four part video was very interesting! I enjoyed listening to Kelley's narration....no doubt he was there and involved in this research adventure.

Arthur Young was one amazing guy....

[Aviomania]

Thanks.. I have really enjoyed it!!!

[kolibri282]

Awesome and inspiring, thank you so much for sharing, Chuck!!!!!

PS: great demonstration of the 90° phase lag....oh, and those wooden blades...;-)

[skier]

I found that a few years ago. Thanks for posting it. It was equally interesting the second time.

[Arnie Madsen]

4 great history videos , enjoyed them all.

[Rotor Rooter]

What an interesting series of videos. Chuck, thanks.



Dave

[joe nelson]

I also enjoyed this video! Has anyone tried a stab. bar on gyro rotors?

[C. Beaty]

Harris Woods (Woody Pusher designer) tried a Hiller gyro bar on his Bensen in the 1960s. Rotor handling during startup was a chore.

All schemes that increase rotor damping; Bell stabilizer bar, Hiller servo rotor, overbalanced blades and heavy tip weights amount to the same thing.

[joe nelson]

Chuck,

I never realized that helicopters were such voodo science in the 1920's. This certainly says more about Young and Kelley than history would indicate. They had an idea and worked through it's development regardless of public opinion.

One thing that I've learned here on the forum, all problems have several schemes to arrive at a solution. The difficult part is to identify the problem.

[Arnie Madsen]

Somewhere I have Arthur Young's book "The Bell Notes". I bought it for the early helicopter history but he wrote very little about it , at that point in his life he focused more on philosophy and why men do what they do , think the way they think , and reason the way they do.

My favorite example:

......Arthur had devoted many years of his life studying helicopter flight controls , designed his own helicopter , built his own helicopter , and then flew his own helicopter .....

..... only to have some official come along to inform him .... " You need a licence before you can fly that thing"