Cessna CH-1 Helicopter

About 50 were built during the 1950's and set the world record for altitude for a piston powered helicopter.

Cessna subsequently bought all the machines back and cancelled the certification ... rumored to be because of transmission failures.

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Cockpit

Cessna CH-1 Helicopter

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Frank Robinson worked for 3 1/2 years on the Cessna helicopter (1957 to 1960)

He also worked on the Umbaugh Gyroplane and the McCulloch Gyro , the Kaman Gyrodyne , then Bell and Hughes helicopters

The instrument panel is reminiscent of the 1950's cars...

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Collect Air has a lengthy article with the Cessna history

http://collectair.org/cessna.html

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That is kind of funny looking, a front engine heli--

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Yeah , just doesn't look right ..... reminds me of the first Bell helicopter , it was designed by fixed wing guys too.

Bell 47B


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Bell Trivia:

Arthur Young said Larry Bell insisted the new helicopter have an airplane type fuselage , Arthur and his engineers objected , they said a full body added weight and accomplished nothing and it looked ugly.

Arthur and his engineers built another test model out of leftover parts , they used an open tube frame , and then blew a Plexiglas bubble to keep the wind off the pilot.

This test machine was never approved by Larry Bell but he let them continue , then told them it was so ugly nobody would buy it anyway

Some time later they displayed both machines at a helicopter convention , the crowds loved the Bell 47G with the plexi bubble and open framework , and ignored 47B with the airplane fuselage so Larry relented .


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I waas tring not to say it,,,,,but yes very ugly, just like most Cessnas....there I said it..sorry all you Cessna lovers, I think they are just ugly.

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YES !!!! ... by all means feel free to call it UGLY

The only reason I posted anything was I stumbled upon the video of one actually flying

UGLY UGLY UGLY

Next post I will show something REALLY REALLY UGLY

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Fiat built a helicopter and here is what it looked like

Cover one eye so you dont go completely blind

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Gads, I think the designer was the same...

The fiat actually is the same concept as the Bell H1, but Bell did a better job on the aesthetics.

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Why stop now

Wagner Aerocar

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Wagner Aerocar ..... It actually flew

If you are not blind yet , the music will make you go deaf

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Oh the humanity!!

A Sikorsky goof gave Bell a chance - Sikorsky had 300+ R-6 helicopters at the end of WW II and stored them disassembled outside on rail cars in the onset of Korea the Army wanted helicopters now and all the magnesium rotted on the R=6s
So the Army went to Bell cha ching $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Bell was on its way.

Thanks Hillberg , for some reason I love helicopter history .... thru the years I have bought numerous biographies of Canadian Bell 47 pilots who flew in the 1950's , and befriended a pilot/historian who wrote some of those books (Peter Corley Smith) https://www.google.ca/search?q=Peter+Co ... 98&dpr=0.9

He said the early successes of Bell were on the West Coast - Oregon - Washington - and British Columbia Canada - right up to Yukon and Alaska .... all mountain flying ..... plus East Coast Northern Ontario Canada .... they were the biggest civil customers , and Bell always had parts and service available , and they all lived and learned and got all the bugs out of the early machines

I should do some brief book reviews of the best stories from those books .... great reading.

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I actually dont mind the look of the cessna chopper...maybe not so much the fiat one

Ahhhhh.... so that must be the 'Cessna Caravan"??