HISTORY
The
Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was
founded in 1940 by Frank Piasecki as
the
P-V
Engineering Forum.
It first become known as
Piasecki
Helicopter
in 1946. To
fund expansion, Piasecki sold 51%
interest in the company to Laurance
Rockefeller and Felix du Pont, Jr.
for $500,000. A conflict eventually
developed and in March 1955 Piasecki
was removed from leadership of the
company. Four months later,
Piasecki left to form a new company,
Piasecki Aircraft Corporation to
pursue the development of compound
helicopters and other rotorcraft.
In two successive special
stockholders' meetings the board
then changed the name of Piasecki
Helicopter to Vertol (vertical
take-off and landing) Aircraft
Corporation and amended the bylaws
to bar Piasecki's re-election as a
director, on the grounds that he was
running a rival company. The
company was acquired by Boeing in
1960 and renamed Boeing Vertol.
It became the Boeing Helicopter
Division in 1987.
The PV-2 was the second
helicopter flown in the United
States (following Igor Sikorsky's VS-300), and was designed and flown
by Frank Piasecki in 1943. Piasecki
designed and successfully sold a
series of tandem rotor helicopters
to the United States Navy, starting
with the HRP-1 of 1944. The HRP-1
was nicknamed the "flying banana"
because of the upward angle of the
aft fuselage that ensured the large
rotors did not hit each other in
flight, and because the Coast Guard
painted the aircraft yellow. The
name would later be applied to other
Piasecki helicopters of similar
design. In 1949, Piasecki provided
the H-21 Workhorse to the United
States Air Force, an improved,
all-metal derivative of the HRP-1.
Piasecki's tandem-rotor helicopters
flew higher than competing single
rotor designs, and offered a
smoother ride.
Source:
Wikipedia
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