The idea of the helicopter dates back to the Renaissance—but the contraptions could not be built until the development of modern aerospace engineering during the interwar period. Few platforms in ...

Sometime in the mid-1980s, a former chief pilot of the Lakewood (Calif.) Sheriff’s Station helicopter patrol program informed me of the perversity of helicopters. A plane with wings, he said, ...

Traces the history of helicopter development, explains how they fly, and features photographs and descriptions of helicopters used by police and in the U.S. and ...

Like cursed penguins, a whole barrage of helicopter designs has failed to make it. From advanced stealth helicopters that cost billions, to sleek gunships and vast flying cranes that proved too much, ...