Birth of the Bell Helicopter.mpg
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Bell Helicopter video on the Birth of the Helicopter including early scenes of the model 30 & 47 with Arthur Youg, Bart Kelly, and Test Pilot Floyd Carlson. Video provided by the Niagara Aerospace Museum.
I retired in 2012 after flying helicopters since 1969. Went Army, then oil companies, then EMS, then DEA, then private airlines flying over 16,000 hours worldwide with over 54,000 documented landings.
Loved the darn things and always will!
The intent of your comment is to brag??
What a fabulous gift to aviation history. The path from model to Model 3 bubble canopy was covered so well with classic methods of weights and balance. Well edited video with a great audio track. Masterpiece of Bell helicopters researchers activity.
Back in the mid 90s, I worked with Bart Kelly's son and he used to tell me all kinds of stories that his father had told him about helicopter development, including the part where the test pilot got thrown through the blades. It was very fulfilling to see footage of the stories he told me.
Bart Kelly made many important contributions to the aircraft. The stabilizer bar was his invention.
He doesn't mention his efforts, but for many years he was the head of the engineering department. An engineer at Bell Helicopter did not need a engineering degree, all you had to do was be able to engineer. I remember one in particular had never been to college at all. This man was one of the best engineers I ever worked with.
The Franklin engines were made for the Franklin air cooled automobile. I have heard that the plant they rented had crates of these old engines stacked at one end, so they used them. Later helicopters used Continental engines.
When I first started working as an aircraft mechanic (not at Bell Aircraft), many of the military 47 models had balsa blades with aluminum skins. Then another blade made like a conventional aircraft wing, aluminum skin with internal wing struts. Inspectors sat with long borescopes, checking the insides of these blades for cracks. The composite blade was a great improvement in blade design.
In all my 40 years of working in the aircraft industry, mostly on helicopters, I never heard anyone in the industry refer to the helicopter as a "chopper," including Korean war vets.
Except for TV news people. They seem to think that calling a helicopter a chopper gives them an "in the know" aura or something. Stupid news. May be one of the reasons I haven't watched TV news for the last 20 years or so.
Ok, sorry for the rant. It's time for my meds, anyway. Hope you enjoyed the bit of history at first.
Oh, I think the guy who was thrown through the blades name was Mashman. A distinction really, I think he is the only person to have ever survived that bit of learning curve.
That's interesting about the engineers. "Choppers"? Where did that _that_ silly word come from, everybody knows they're helos.
(My Dad was Navy) ;D
A chopper's a motorcycle anyway....thanks for the great story sir....cheers!
I was in 8/1 Air Cav Squadron in '71 @ Fort Knox. I was in the ground troop, D, and the other guys, most of whom were back from 'Nam and waiting out the rest of their 2 years of active duty, called the Hotel models 'slicks'
Thanks. I gave you a like.
I kept wondering what the development overlap was in comparison with Sikorsky...Was this after or before or happening at same time? I also clearly noticed when funding began to flow freely, and it seems a lot of it was flowing rather quickly. To think all this happened right down the road from where I sit presently.
I sure wish my skills were more highly valued in today's world... I definitely fit the bill of "Able to engineer, but no engineering degree"... This video was very good, I am watching it for the 3rd time this morning. Thank you for posting and for the "insider information"! Much obliged
What a fantastic video, the narrator is very nice to listen to and the footage timeless. Thank you for sharing this.
Galenn windsor - nuclear hoax. If you like this type of zero bullshit all truth
I AGREE! 1000%
That is a brilliant short documentary. Truly one of the best things this aviation mad guy has ever watched on youtube.
Same here, try Periscope films and
Jeff Quitney
on youtube, lots of WW2 and post.
Fantastic! Wish it were longer. Amazing from model electrics to miracle life saving equipment.
I feel like standing up and applauding after watching that!
VERY interesting & superbly narriated. THANK YOU so much for this historical posting.
They sure did come up with some elegant solutions for the various problems they ran into - there's a 47 being rebuilt at Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver and I always thought the way it was put together was genius especially the rotor mast, that one has the ball ended stabilizer bar (like M.A.S.H.). Loved this Video! : D
What a wonderful film! Such clever minds and workmanship. That pilot was lucky to get away with just a broken arm.
So incredibly fascinating. How on earth the gentleman at 11:05 survived is beyond my comprehension
Such a cool video! My late Father was fortunate to be chosen as one of the pilots for the Genesee County Sheriffs Dept. here in Flint, Mi back in the mid 1970’s. They purchased a Bell 47 G 5-a. Dad remarked that those years were the best part of his Law Enforcement career!! Great video!!
The following story was related to me by a fellow inspector.
Bart Kelly went into the rotor blade production department and asked this inspector where a certain supervisor was . The inspector told Mr. Kelly that the supervisor had left the department, but would return shortly. The inspector was inspecting a rotor blade, (a composite blade made of aluminum honeycomb and various bonded layers, a very advanced blade) so Mr. Kelly stayed and chatted with the inspector. The supervisor showed up and Mr. Kelly soon left.
The inspector said to the supervisor, "Who was that old guy, he talked like he knew everything there was to know about rotor blades." The supervisors' comment was priceless, "He does."
Bart Kelly was legendary in his own right.
It was a Bell executive that "went into the rotor blade" ;)
Indeed he was. But beyond all of his engineering talent he was also a lover of music. Bart was a fine oboe player and his wife Dorthea was a violist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for many years. They hosted the Dallas Chamber Music Society at their home which had not 1 but 2 Steinway concert grand pianos. My Stepfather, Martin Anastasi worked for Bell as director of foreign licensee projects including an agreement Bell had with Agusta, a company in Italy. Together they made the Augusta Bell model 204 in the early 1960's. Bart, Larry and Arthur well all pioneers.
very very good documentary
Thanks for preserving and publishing this. The birth of the MASH helicopter. A comparison between Arthur Young's helicopter and the early Sikorsky helicopters would be interesting.
The test pilot has to be the luckiest man ever thrown up into the rotor and walked away I would bet no one else survived it if it happened again
He survived because he was nearer the vertical shaft. Had he moved nearer the blade tips he could have been decapitated
It's amazing how humble were the beginnings of these machines.
its incredible that pilot survived going into the rotor, i thought he was dead for sure
That should have completely shatter all parts of his body that was hit, plus collateral damage
@@VaporSpaceNumber101 yeah
Thanks for posting this incredibly cool historical look at early Bell heli development. My father worked for Hamilton Standard right out of engineering (actually physics college) and did electrical analog "computer" simulations of heli blades. Great stuff. Thumbed up!
I have the pleasure of flying a Eurocopter AS350B3 and and Agusta Koala A119 but it is easy to forget how lucky I am and how I got so lucky to fly these amazing aircraft. This video was a fantastic reminder of how and who made it possible for helicopter flight no matter what make or model! Thanks so much for the video!
Great Machines, proud Inventors! Greetings from Thuringia, Germany
I was in an aviation unit in the army back in the 70s. This is a great historical video. And I love that a dog was the first passenger on the first flight
Wow! what a truly amazing piece of history! I loved every minute of it. Thank You very much for posting this!!
Amazing pioneering genius. Those guys never quit and were determined to succeed.
well they were encouraged by the guys who did it first - like sikorsky i guess
@@antigen4 are you suggesting there was RUSSIA COLLUSION?!
i know god forbid right?
That is exactly what you do when you have ideas... Trial and error...
Thanks to Bell Helicopters, most brilliant words were uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger:
"GET TO DA CHOPPA!!"
This was back during a time when engineers and designers had fun being creative as a automotive designer.
Astonishing how helicopter technologies had such humble roots.
Floyd Carlson, son, Blair Carlson taught me how to fly helicopters in Army Primary at Fort Wolters, Texas.
WOW! Who remembers Whirlybirds TV series.
Never missed an episode!
The first indoor flight was with a Focke-Wulf 61 in Berlin 1937, seven years earlier than claimed by this video.
If you listen carefully, he said that it was the first indoor flight in the western hemisphere, he makes no other claim...
It was my priveledge in September 1991 to meet Bart Kelly at his home, along with Tony Searle, a freind who paid for the research trip.
I'm looking at my copy of Vertical Flight - The Age of the Helicopter, signed by the man himself 'remembering our pleasant meeting'.
He was a gentleman of the highest order and gifted engineer who shared with us some of the untold story of the development and design considerations of a practical helicopter, and was also a gifted English Horn player in an orchestra there in Dallas. He was indeed expecting a new instrument very shortly that he'd ordered and proceeded to enlighten us on the differences between a French Horn and an English Horn.
Bart, he insisted we call him Bart, was also kind enough to put us in touch with Joe Mashman, test pilot from Bell Textron during the Korean war period, responsible for new types documentation and testing, and it was he, Joe Mashman, who was responsible, it being his idea, for mounting a bazooka on each skid of the model 47, at that time used solely for Casevac and unarmed.
Joe reckoned that a couple of bazooka rounds might keep the heads of hostiles down whilst on a job, the bazooka itself being very light, and the ammunition itself the 'heavy' part, it would not impair performance in the 47's primary role of Casevac.
See the long running TV series MASH for action shots of Bell 47's in role of casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) during the Korean campaign.
Joe expalined to us during our meeting, sponsored by Bart, that after expalining the project to the Armoury commander, whom he knew, he'd borrowed a couple of bazookas, made brackets to attach them to the skids of the '47, and then bore sighted them to a target at approximately 100 yards back at base. So far so good, now for a 'live fire' test.
Unfortunately, the base in question was in Texas, and too far for the Army
officials to be bothered so Joe arranged a demonstration firing, shipped the machine up by rail, obtained two live rounds for the bazooka and proceeded to board a local scheduled flight to DC to demo the rig.
He packed the two cased rounds under his seat. Try doing that in 2019.
The test was a success and the arms-carrying Bell 47 was born.
RIP all you heroes.
Arthur Middleton Young. Your Arc of Process continues to develop towards it's destined point of departure.
My generation needs this. Thanks for inspiring some of us.
This is amazing. I was an avionics crew chief (yes, they existed back then) for the Bell UH-1N (Huey) many years ago while serving in the USMC. It's important to remember the resources they had back then. There was no such thing as the internet. They didn't use computers to help design this. They used drafting boards, T Squares, pencils, and erasers. They didn't have calculators. Instead, they used slide rules. Many of these engineers and technicians were self-taught - no college degrees. This is the very definition of innovation. Thanks to people like these, we can watch horrific helicopters crashes on TH-cam while we're sitting in our underwear eating cereal. You're goddamn right, 'Murica.
I worked at Bell as a Tool Designer and I used the 'Ol pencil and paper sometimes to design tooling, I even got to do some engineering changes to the 047 model dated 1947 on some of the board drawings....I miss that job
I’m a huge fan of the Bell helicopter company. Huge fan! Can’t wait for the Bell V-280 Valor and Bell 360 Invictus to be mass produced. Amazing company! Amazing aircrafts!
The first indoor display of a helicopter was given in Germany by in a twin rotor Focke - Achgelis 223.
You sound like the German engineer character "Dorfman" in the 1965 movie Flight Of The Phoenix. So was that a real helicopter or a toy helicopter Mr. Waite?
Almost 66
My mother worked for Bell Aerospace during the 70's
In Niagara Falls
They made great strides in creating different craft that could both be used in not only military, but civilian use as well
So well put together. Excellent documentary.
I had no idea; I thought it was all Igor Sikorsky. The stabilizer bar made it controllable.
Rick it’s now your turn to show us your hairy manpussy and your low hangers I
I learned this after joining the Army and working on Cobras...
I grew up within 1 mile of the gardenvile airport..
If not mistaken there's a Rite-Aid where first flights occurred. @Union rd. near Losson rd.
Very nice documentary. It's nice to see where we come from (scientificy speaking).
An excellent documentary, both footage and commentary.How dull childhood
Would have been PerchanceWithout Whirlybirds.!
Focke-Wulf Fw 61 and the Flettner Fl 282 didn't seem to take any part in his studies, although these were there from 1936 onwards.
Both my grandparents worked for Bell Aero, grew up close by in Sanborn. Miss my grandparents, great hard working people.
I live close to the Bell plant in the Falls.
I loved flying the Bell 47 in which I got my Rotor Wing License. This was. A good video about the Bell.
Amazing, brilliant documentary ! one of the best youtube suggestions ever! thanks a lot for uploading, I can't believe it has been around for such a long time.
I know nothing about aviation, but am glad to be able to say I did traffic reports for a radio station in a Bell 47 above the Indianapolis 500 track on race day in 1978. The engine blew a valve and we had to land in a vacant spot of scruffy land behind an apartment complex. That machine was really fun to be in, as the pilot and I were 500 feet above the track, where those race cars looked like model slot cars that were so popular in those long ago days. Thanks for sharing this beautifully done report on Bell's beginning. Those men were truly brave and determined. Fun to watch!🙂
Great documentary. Something that jumped out to me, at 23:05, it’s foreshadowing the Twilight Zone movie Huey accident.
My Grandmother worked for Bell Helicopter at Flight test for thirty years. I could tell you which ones were overhead just by the sound.
Thanks ii learn some thing today/ít amzing still people still try to built copter today and many got killed by their invention 😮😮😮😮😮
Thank you Bartram Kelly for doing this video for history.
Fascinating. These gentlemen risked life and limb to pursue what their dreams. Absolutely amazing. The current Bell Helicopters still use similar system.
Excellent film footage and perfect narration.
When you see .mpg, you know its going to be a well made classic
I had the honor of flying in a US Army helicopter with Blair Carlson, Floyd Carlson's son. Blair often talked about his dad and those first Bell machines. The Carlsons were an incredible family and many US Army Aviators can thank Blair for their introduction to Primary Flight Training at Fort Rucker in 1978. Gold Hat Class 78-22. Rest in Peace Blair, you are teaching angels to fly now, my friend.
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson made plenty money off of Bell Helicopter stock!😮
Thank you,I had the privilage to flyght the Bell 47 in agriculture and I loved it
I’m a retired engr, love this video! I watched ever episode of Whirlybirds in the 50’s.😎 🚁
But I’m surprised the test pilots didn’t wear a helmet. And that there wasn’t a plate between the pilot & engine in the event the engine flew apart.
How many of the 10 thousand produced ever crashed?
Bravo and we helicopter lovers thank you for the hard effort you put in larry
fascinating...this shows the persistence and engineering talent needed to “crack this nut”....and the brilliance of Arthur M Young!
22:47 lol flying prototype helicopter in an open stadium filled with ppl... this video is a gold mine
Fascinating. I've never seen this video and I flew helicopters my whole life !
Inventing aircraft in a barn w/ cows in the way! True American innovation!
This video is......intellectually orgasmic, the beauty of the minds and devices, so beautiful
OK Has anybody ever seen such a beautiful model full of unique brilliant engineering? In 1940? was it? Holy moly.
Yeah, the Wright brothers in 1901, '02 & '03....
I thought the same exact thing myself while watching.
Very constructive history film 🎥 about the bell 🔔 machine 🚁.
None of the test pilots wore helmets. I’m surprised they had seat belts.
And most wore hats!
Initially they didn’t. Saw film at a Bell 47 seminar in Hollywood circa 1983(?) where clearly the pilot did something he shouldn’t and was pitched up thru the spinning blades. If I remember correctly the “seat” resembled a camp type aluminum chair. Worked on G5A variants during the 80s used in agriculture for crop dusting, then again in the mid 90s on floats for spotting tuna around the equator south of Guam. Taking off and landing on a boat bouncing along in ten to fifteen foot waves gives you a whole new vision of what a good pilot looks like. Great reliability and relatively (it is a helicopter after all) easy to maintain. What I have heard is Bell. (Textron when I was involved, think it has changed hands a couple of times since) has almost priced replacement/ time life parts to a point where it is terribly costly to fly, and Robinson’s have pretty well taken over small rotorcraft nowadays.
Wonderful piece of oral history with clips likely not available elsewhere.
Had a fascination w/ heli- and gyro-copters, as a kid. Built an RC, but never got any more than a few minutes stick time in a Bell Kiowa and a Hughes UH-1, while in the military (totally off the books, but a real blast), after making friends w/ a Marine Corp pilot. He was a car guy, so I repaid his generosity by rebuilding the carburetor for his '67 Olds 442, tuning it for proper jet size and adjusting the progressive linkage operation. Win win!!
The UH-1 is a Bell helicopter; commercial known as the Bell 204 (UH-1A or UH-1B) or later as the Bell 205 (UH-1 designations beyond the UH-1B except for the gunships). If you are referring to a military Hughes helicopter, I'd bet it is the OH-6 which is essentially the Hughes 500 series. The Kiowa is another Bell helicopter with a military designation of OH-58 or commercial designation of Bell 206.
I was ATC, so I admit a less than thorough/complete knowledge about all of the aircraft that I controlled, but appreciate the clarification.
I could use a little clarification myself as I don't know what "ATC" means. My best guess is 'air traffic controller' (seeing 'aircraft' and 'controlled' in the same sentence)?
Apologies, but yes, I was an Air traffic controller. Loved that job! Only job I've ever felt challenged by.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
11:10 This dude is knocked outta his timeline... He's up and about only 3 days after that! I thought he died, like instantly. Wow...
wowwwww
This reminds me of my favorite TV show when I was a kid, late 50s or early 60s. Chuck and PT were the pilots, police as I recall. They were my hero’s then. I used to draw countless helicopters, Bell 47s I think in class, daydreaming of flying a helicopter.
24:22 shows how big business cannot bear to have small innovative teams!
if anyone today, I admire Elon for his persistence
What a great historic piece of video. Gotta love the narrator.
Great video. I worked and flew on a 47 in the 90's. Still a great flying helicopter.
What a wonderful use of my time, thank you for sharing!
嗯，兄弟分散，大約有学另一科技，而那期隐形師??，不詳，大慨和隐形死人科学医生有関，即鼻師幼离而亡期，哪期的隐形師練習同人互动，，，So??。
大慨也同火車旁宿被揪回之隐形組有関，，，??。
As with all other comments, thank you for digitizing this gem of a set of reels and sharing it. This kind of dispersion of real history and real knowledge and lessons is super rare, and should be archived for all future generations. Thanks so much 🙏
This was an awesome video. Without things like this the historical backstory would not be known. One thing struck me though - how little attention was paid to safety.
I always surprised when I watch the early flight films of the complete lack of any safety clothing or equipment. Fantastic story and very well narrated.
Back before lawyers and insurance men ruined everything.
@@davesmith2155 And pilots died in frequent crashes.
Life is not supposed to be all cushy. You live it and take your chances. Lawyers and insurance men, excuse me, salespeople, are just trying to exploit whatever they can to make a buck.
My grandfather was Floyd Carlson. It amazes me as well.
@@davidcarlson2895 Construction hard hats were invented in the USA by workers working on the Hoover Dam. They dipped their base ball caps and other hats in hot tar and allowed them to cool and harden to give them some protection from falling stones.
excellent Excellent EXCELLENT 27 minuets, gonna watch it a few more times too.........
The vary first helicopter I saw was either a 47 landing on the beach in Waianae HI or lashed to the deck of my dad LST 1110 on it's way to bring supplys up to Alaska from West Loch in Pearl Harbor in the mid 1950s in order to construct the DEW line.
My first stick time was in a 47 in the early 1990s in Blairstown NJ.
And now that I think of it, perhaps my last stick tick time was in a 47 at Homer Bell's (no relation) in a corn field in southern Ohio in the late 1990s.
Mozart wrote minuets too. 😉
Wow, I didn't know how far advanced the Germans were in this area until watching this video...
Unbelievable anyone survived being run through the chopper blades !! No helmets lol its a wonder they didn't lose several people.. Very nice video..
A helmet was purposely not used. They figured that if the helmet made contact with the blades they might be damaged. Blades were expensive; cheaper to get a new executive than new blades..
Modern men and minds just don't compare to these guys.
That was a refreshing nitty gritty hands on history lesson!
There are lots of helicopters but there is only one Chopper! The Bell HU-1 Huey 😉
YAAA !!
The film was made the month and year of my birth. This was riveting. Loved the insightful narration. Amazing document of important work in the advancement of aviation.
i was a plane captain and door gunner/AO great
A,C
Amazing what gets built in a barn.
Awesome video to see the development process over time! These guys were geniuses. Thanks for sharing this vintage video!
Beautifull and interresting video/film, Bart Kelley past away 21 years after this film in 1998.
Not mentioned is that the Germans had a fully operational fleet of helicopters used by their military.
One of the Best Documentaries on YT.
It's amazing how the idea of helicopter spanned centuries until it's fruition with the practical flying helicopter of Igor Sikorsky.
Where did he get those parts machined????
What a wonderful story! Thanks very much for posting this video!
Brilliant, thank you for the information 😀
@11:16 OMG, can't belive he didn't die from that!
abvmoose87 one of those moments where it looks worse than it was. They had a very weak engine then and it is possible the clutch on the transmission took a lot out of the impact. Also lucky that the helicopter sat back on the ground and didn’t try to tear itself to pieces.
@@firewing1319 Didn't the narrator say that there was no clutch, and that's why the blades had to be rotated manually before starting the engine?
Nonetheless, the pilot, was lucky to survive with so few injuries.
RWBHere I looked at it agian. Yeah he was thrown clear of the blades and more hits. But the blades also broke when it impacted the ground preventing the helo from turning into a spinning top.
should have
a bloody good watch thanks for saving this footage
These Guys really new how to think out the box
18:03 Im surprised dumbo didnt lose his head standing there like chained while the tested heli, mainly its propeller was swinging in all the angles, directions and elevations possible. Very brave person, or was he just plain stupid?
kokot sity I think it is a matter of perspective. He is probably much farther away from the bird than what we can see.
Thanks, Paul, for posting this !