Steam-Driven Helicopter

Also in 1878, Enrico Forlanini, an Italian civil engineer, built another type of flying steam-driven rc helicopter simulation model powered by a 7.7-pound (3.5-kilogram) engine. This model had two counter-rotating rotors and rose more than 40 feet (12 meters), flying for as much as 20 seconds.
In the 1880s, Thomas Alva Edison experimented with small rc helicopter games models in the United States. He tested several rotor configurations driven by a gun cotton engine, an early form of internal combustion engine. However, a series of explosions that blew up part of his laboratory deterred him. Later, Edison used an electric motor for power, and he was one of the first to realize from his experiments that a large-diameter rotor with low blade area was needed to give good hovering efficiency. Edison’s scientific approach to the problems of vertical flight proved that both high aerodynamic efficiency of the rotor and high power from an engine were required for successful vertical flight.

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