Helicopter: Pioneering With Igor Sikorsky

In Russia, when only 24 years old, Igor Sikorsky had already designed, piloted and successfully demonstrated the first large, four-engined civil air transport in the world - that was in 1914. Twenty-five years later in 1939, he briefly, but successfully piloted the lift-off of the forerunner of a world-wide series of helicopters. This is the story of how the man overcome the many technical problems that constantly occurred as, step-by-step, the form of the modern helicopter took shape. As a close assistant to Sikorsky in the early days of helicopter design during the late thirties and early forties, William Hunt is the last remaining member of that design team. This is an important record of how vertical lift-off and flight were perfected in these early pioneering days of helicopters.