Enrico Forlanini was an Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer, known for his works on helicopters, aeroplanes, hydrofoils and dirigibles. He was born in Milan. His older brother Carlo Forlanini was a physician.
Enrico Forlanini.
Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan
Forlanini hydrofoil on Lake Maggiore circa 1911
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of short take-off and landing (STOL) or short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft cannot perform without a runway.
A Bell 206 helicopter operated by the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division
Cabin view looking out from a helicopter in flight
Bell 412CF looking forward from the tail, showing its twin turbine endinge exhausts
1956 Hiller YROE-1 one-man "Rotorcycle" being tested at NASA Ames Research Center
