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Paul · 07-09-2006

History has it that Dieter Schluter was the first person to succesfully fly an r/c helicopter in the world, according to his own book the exact date he completed first succesful flight was April 1970, and in June the same year achieved 2 world records for r/c helis ratified by the FAI, so far so good. However I have a book about the history & development of the Lockheed AH-56A Cheyenne and in this book I quote :

"The fact that no RC model helicopter had ever been flown did not seem to deter Lockheed. The model emerged with a 5 foot diameter, two bladed main rotor with a fixed collective pitch control. Power came from a single McCoy 60 model airplane engine which turned the rotor through a combination belt & gear drive with an 8:1 reduction ratio.

.....the model helicopter proved very stable and easy to fly. The concept had been proven, and now it was time for a full scale aircraft."

The year? 1959, 11 years prior to Schluter

Presumably their work would have been classified so perhaps explains why it was never publicised, if it had have been made public where would model heli development be today?

07-09-2006	#1 (permalink)
Paul Scale Model Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Nottingham Real Name: Paul My Models: Petrol aero & heli, Autogyro. Visit Paul's Gallery Posts: 21	First r/c helicopter? History has it that Dieter Schluter was the first person to succesfully fly an r/c helicopter in the world, according to his own book the exact date he completed first succesful flight was April 1970, and in June the same year achieved 2 world records for r/c helis ratified by the FAI, so far so good. However I have a book about the history & development of the Lockheed AH-56A Cheyenne and in this book I quote : "The fact that no RC model helicopter had ever been flown did not seem to deter Lockheed. The model emerged with a 5 foot diameter, two bladed main rotor with a fixed collective pitch control. Power came from a single McCoy 60 model airplane engine which turned the rotor through a combination belt & gear drive with an 8:1 reduction ratio. .....the model helicopter proved very stable and easy to fly. The concept had been proven, and now it was time for a full scale aircraft." The year? 1959, 11 years prior to Schluter Presumably their work would have been classified so perhaps explains why it was never publicised, if it had have been made public where would model heli development be today?