Helicopter Day

What the day is

Helicopter Day is observed on May 30. It celebrates the helicopter, an aircraft that can take off and land vertically, hover in place and fly in any direction. The date is not tied to a documented historical event, and the origin of the observance is not recorded, so it is mainly an occasion for people interested in aviation.

The helicopter does things no airplane can, which explains why it is used for rescue, medical transport, firefighting, news coverage and construction.

Origin and background

The idea is old. The Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew a design in the late fifteenth century for an aerial screw, a spiral that would lift itself by turning, although it could never have flown. Real progress came in the early twentieth century. In 1907 the Frenchman Paul Cornu lifted off for a short free flight in a twin-rotor machine, and other pioneers followed. The great difficulty was control, and it was solved by a Russian-born American engineer, Igor Sikorsky.

Sikorsky's VS-300 made its first tethered flight in 1939 and its first free flight in 1940. It used a single large main rotor and a small tail rotor to cancel out the twisting force, and that layout became the standard design for most helicopters. The Sikorsky R-4 followed and became the first helicopter produced in quantity, entering military service in the Second World War.

A helicopter's rotor works as a rotating wing. Tilting the blades changes the lift, and the pilot controls direction with a cyclic stick and altitude with a collective lever. Helicopters are used by air ambulances, which carry patients to hospital faster than ground transport can, and by search and rescue teams working in mountains and at sea.

How to take part

• Visit an aviation museum, which often has a helicopter you can look at up close.
• Watch a video of a helicopter rescue, and read about how crews train for them.
• Build a model helicopter with a child, or fly a small remote-controlled one.
• Learn about Sikorsky and the first flights of the VS-300.
• Take a helicopter tour if one is offered where you live, or look into flight lessons.