Helicopter Facts for Moore, OK

In 1937 German designer Heinrich Focke built an aircraft with two huge variable pitch rotors instead of wings and achieved a controlled hover. Months later, German Anton Flettner built the first true helicopter.

If the engine of the helicopter stops, the rotor continues to spin allowing the machine to slowly land, generally without crashing to the ground.

FAA - A History of Aircraft Structures Factoid for Moore, OK

Airframe structural components are constructed from a wide variety of materials. The earliest aircraft were constructed primarily of wood. Steel tubing and the most common material, aluminum, followed. Many newly certified aircraft are built from molded composite materials, such as carbon fiber. Structural members of an aircraft’s fuselage include stringers, longerons, ribs, bulkheads, and more. The main structural member in a wing is called the wing spar.