Bell Helicopter video on the Birth of the Helicopter including early scenes of the model 30 & 47 with Arthur Youg, Bart Kelly, and Test Pilot Floyd Carlson. Video provided by the Niagara Aerospace Museum.
I retired in 2012 after flying helicopters since 1969. Went Army, then oil companies, then EMS, then DEA, then private airlines flying over 16,000 hours worldwide with over 54,000 documented landings. Loved the darn things and always will!
Back in the mid 90s, I worked with Bart Kelly's son and he used to tell me all kinds of stories that his father had told him about helicopter development, including the part where the test pilot got thrown through the blades. It was very fulfilling to see footage of the stories he told me.
What a fabulous gift to aviation history. The path from model to Model 3 bubble canopy was covered so well with classic methods of weights and balance. Well edited video with a great audio track. Masterpiece of Bell helicopters researchers activity.
I know nothing about aviation, but am glad to be able to say I did traffic reports for a radio station in a Bell 47 above the Indianapolis 500 track on race day in 1978. The engine blew a valve and we had to land in a vacant spot of scruffy land behind an apartment complex. That machine was really fun to be in, as the pilot and I were 500 feet above the track, where those race cars looked like model slot cars that were so popular in those long ago days. Thanks for sharing this beautifully done report on Bell's beginning. Those men were truly brave and determined. Fun to watch!🙂
Bart Kelly made many important contributions to the aircraft. The stabilizer bar was his invention. He doesn't mention his efforts, but for many years he was the head of the engineering department. An engineer at Bell Helicopter did not need a engineering degree, all you had to do was be able to engineer. I remember one in particular had never been to college at all. This man was one of the best engineers I ever worked with. The Franklin engines were made for the Franklin air cooled automobile. I have heard that the plant they rented had crates of these old engines stacked at one end, so they used them. Later helicopters used Continental engines. When I first started working as an aircraft mechanic (not at Bell Aircraft), many of the military 47 models had balsa blades with aluminum skins. Then another blade made like a conventional aircraft wing, aluminum skin with internal wing struts. Inspectors sat with long borescopes, checking the insides of these blades for cracks. The composite blade was a great improvement in blade design. In all my 40 years of working in the aircraft industry, mostly on helicopters, I never heard anyone in the industry refer to the helicopter as a "chopper," including Korean war vets. Except for TV news people. They seem to think that calling a helicopter a chopper gives them an "in the know" aura or something. Stupid news. May be one of the reasons I haven't watched TV news for the last 20 years or so. Ok, sorry for the rant. It's time for my meds, anyway. Hope you enjoyed the bit of history at first. Oh, I think the guy who was thrown through the blades name was Mashman. A distinction really, I think he is the only person to have ever survived that bit of learning curve.
I was in 8/1 Air Cav Squadron in '71 @ Fort Knox. I was in the ground troop, D, and the other guys, most of whom were back from 'Nam and waiting out the rest of their 2 years of active duty, called the Hotel models 'slicks'
I kept wondering what the development overlap was in comparison with Sikorsky...Was this after or before or happening at same time? I also clearly noticed when funding began to flow freely, and it seems a lot of it was flowing rather quickly. To think all this happened right down the road from where I sit presently. I sure wish my skills were more highly valued in today's world... I definitely fit the bill of "Able to engineer, but no engineering degree"... This video was very good, I am watching it for the 3rd time this morning. Thank you for posting and for the "insider information"! Much obliged
Such a cool video! My late Father was fortunate to be chosen as one of the pilots for the Genesee County Sheriffs Dept. here in Flint, Mi back in the mid 1970’s. They purchased a Bell 47 G 5-a. Dad remarked that those years were the best part of his Law Enforcement career!! Great video!!
I was in an aviation unit in the army back in the 70s. This is a great historical video. And I love that a dog was the first passenger on the first flight
I had the honor of flying in a US Army helicopter with Blair Carlson, Floyd Carlson's son. Blair often talked about his dad and those first Bell machines. The Carlsons were an incredible family and many US Army Aviators can thank Blair for their introduction to Primary Flight Training at Fort Rucker in 1978. Gold Hat Class 78-22. Rest in Peace Blair, you are teaching angels to fly now, my friend.
They sure did come up with some elegant solutions for the various problems they ran into - there's a 47 being rebuilt at Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver and I always thought the way it was put together was genius especially the rotor mast, that one has the ball ended stabilizer bar (like M.A.S.H.). Loved this Video! : D
The following story was related to me by a fellow inspector. Bart Kelly went into the rotor blade production department and asked this inspector where a certain supervisor was . The inspector told Mr. Kelly that the supervisor had left the department, but would return shortly. The inspector was inspecting a rotor blade, (a composite blade made of aluminum honeycomb and various bonded layers, a very advanced blade) so Mr. Kelly stayed and chatted with the inspector. The supervisor showed up and Mr. Kelly soon left. The inspector said to the supervisor, "Who was that old guy, he talked like he knew everything there was to know about rotor blades." The supervisors' comment was priceless, "He does." Bart Kelly was legendary in his own right.
Indeed he was. But beyond all of his engineering talent he was also a lover of music. Bart was a fine oboe player and his wife Dorthea was a violist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for many years. They hosted the Dallas Chamber Music Society at their home which had not 1 but 2 Steinway concert grand pianos. My Stepfather, Martin Anastasi worked for Bell as director of foreign licensee projects including an agreement Bell had with Agusta, a company in Italy. Together they made the Augusta Bell model 204 in the early 1960's. Bart, Larry and Arthur well all pioneers.
As with all other comments, thank you for digitizing this gem of a set of reels and sharing it. This kind of dispersion of real history and real knowledge and lessons is super rare, and should be archived for all future generations. Thanks so much 🙏
This is amazing. I was an avionics crew chief (yes, they existed back then) for the Bell UH-1N (Huey) many years ago while serving in the USMC. It's important to remember the resources they had back then. There was no such thing as the internet. They didn't use computers to help design this. They used drafting boards, T Squares, pencils, and erasers. They didn't have calculators. Instead, they used slide rules. Many of these engineers and technicians were self-taught - no college degrees. This is the very definition of innovation. Thanks to people like these, we can watch horrific helicopters crashes on RU-vid while we're sitting in our underwear eating cereal. You're goddamn right, 'Murica.
I worked at Bell as a Tool Designer and I used the 'Ol pencil and paper sometimes to design tooling, I even got to do some engineering changes to the 047 model dated 1947 on some of the board drawings....I miss that job
Almost 66 My mother worked for Bell Aerospace during the 70's In Niagara Falls They made great strides in creating different craft that could both be used in not only military, but civilian use as well
This reminds me of my favorite TV show when I was a kid, late 50s or early 60s. Chuck and PT were the pilots, police as I recall. They were my hero’s then. I used to draw countless helicopters, Bell 47s I think in class, daydreaming of flying a helicopter.
Thanks for posting this incredibly cool historical look at early Bell heli development. My father worked for Hamilton Standard right out of engineering (actually physics college) and did electrical analog "computer" simulations of heli blades. Great stuff. Thumbed up!
I have the pleasure of flying a Eurocopter AS350B3 and and Agusta Koala A119 but it is easy to forget how lucky I am and how I got so lucky to fly these amazing aircraft. This video was a fantastic reminder of how and who made it possible for helicopter flight no matter what make or model! Thanks so much for the video!
I grew up in the Fort Worth, Texas area and was privileged to know Mr. Carlson (Floyd) and his family. I remember as a teenager sitting in his living room with his son, Blair, and paging through photo albums of his early test flights. I also had the opportunity to meet Bart Kelly at Floyd's home. In high school, Blair and flew with Mr. Carlson several times in a Bonanza chase plane when the predecessor to the tilt rotor Osprey, the "Convert-a-Plane", was being test flown out of the old Globe Aircraft plant in Saginaw, Texas. His son Blair followed in Mr. Carlson's footsteps and became a helicopter pilot. He and I flew many hours in the model 47 G. Great video and treasured memories.
Fabulous record of historical technological /engineering by practical men without any hype. Arthur Young's account of his work and overall philosophy "the reflexive universe' is well worth a read.
i m a RC model hobbyist and i worked early in 2008 on the home made radio controlled TREX helicopters and this Arthur Young / bell works with stabilization fly bars and swashplates speaks to me volumes
Had a fascination w/ heli- and gyro-copters, as a kid. Built an RC, but never got any more than a few minutes stick time in a Bell Kiowa and a Hughes UH-1, while in the military (totally off the books, but a real blast), after making friends w/ a Marine Corp pilot. He was a car guy, so I repaid his generosity by rebuilding the carburetor for his '67 Olds 442, tuning it for proper jet size and adjusting the progressive linkage operation. Win win!!
The UH-1 is a Bell helicopter; commercial known as the Bell 204 (UH-1A or UH-1B) or later as the Bell 205 (UH-1 designations beyond the UH-1B except for the gunships). If you are referring to a military Hughes helicopter, I'd bet it is the OH-6 which is essentially the Hughes 500 series. The Kiowa is another Bell helicopter with a military designation of OH-58 or commercial designation of Bell 206.
I could use a little clarification myself as I don't know what "ATC" means. My best guess is 'air traffic controller' (seeing 'aircraft' and 'controlled' in the same sentence)?
Astonishing that this footage exists. I'm literally watching a man create something that would eventually change air travel forever. I start my helicopter training in a week.
Fascinating. These gentlemen risked life and limb to pursue what their dreams. Absolutely amazing. The current Bell Helicopters still use similar system.
Thanks for preserving and publishing this. The birth of the MASH helicopter. A comparison between Arthur Young's helicopter and the early Sikorsky helicopters would be interesting.
I’m a huge fan of the Bell helicopter company. Huge fan! Can’t wait for the Bell V-280 Valor and Bell 360 Invictus to be mass produced. Amazing company! Amazing aircrafts!
Thank you for this video, it was fascinating to see the development of the Bell Helicopter and the pilot who survived being thrown through the rotor blades. Damn Lucky!
Amazing, brilliant documentary ! one of the best youtube suggestions ever! thanks a lot for uploading, I can't believe it has been around for such a long time.
I met Arthur at age 71, when Barry Rosenberg invited him to visit our radio show on WXPN, "Relax for Survival." I was a young producer, and Arthur was an interesting guest. He talked about the development of the helicopter at length, and this film is a wonderful postscript to that experience.
I love the string and sticky tape approach to performance measurement. I also learned for the first time how the rotor is controlled with counetrweagts.
The minds of these men. Great men, who changed the world. To encounter a problem, use training and intellect to slowly arrive at an answer is impressive.
It was my priveledge in September 1991 to meet Bart Kelly at his home, along with Tony Searle, a freind who paid for the research trip. I'm looking at my copy of Vertical Flight - The Age of the Helicopter, signed by the man himself 'remembering our pleasant meeting'. He was a gentleman of the highest order and gifted engineer who shared with us some of the untold story of the development and design considerations of a practical helicopter, and was also a gifted English Horn player in an orchestra there in Dallas. He was indeed expecting a new instrument very shortly that he'd ordered and proceeded to enlighten us on the differences between a French Horn and an English Horn. Bart, he insisted we call him Bart, was also kind enough to put us in touch with Joe Mashman, test pilot from Bell Textron during the Korean war period, responsible for new types documentation and testing, and it was he, Joe Mashman, who was responsible, it being his idea, for mounting a bazooka on each skid of the model 47, at that time used solely for Casevac and unarmed. Joe reckoned that a couple of bazooka rounds might keep the heads of hostiles down whilst on a job, the bazooka itself being very light, and the ammunition itself the 'heavy' part, it would not impair performance in the 47's primary role of Casevac. See the long running TV series MASH for action shots of Bell 47's in role of casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) during the Korean campaign. Joe expalined to us during our meeting, sponsored by Bart, that after expalining the project to the Armoury commander, whom he knew, he'd borrowed a couple of bazookas, made brackets to attach them to the skids of the '47, and then bore sighted them to a target at approximately 100 yards back at base. So far so good, now for a 'live fire' test. Unfortunately, the base in question was in Texas, and too far for the Army officials to be bothered so Joe arranged a demonstration firing, shipped the machine up by rail, obtained two live rounds for the bazooka and proceeded to board a local scheduled flight to DC to demo the rig. He packed the two cased rounds under his seat. Try doing that in 2019. The test was a success and the arms-carrying Bell 47 was born. RIP all you heroes. Arthur Middleton Young. Your Arc of Process continues to develop towards it's destined point of departure.
Fascinating.. Wonderful to see people flying development tests dressed in shirts, no helmets.. Health & Safety still a comfortable 40 years away. What an age to be living in.
Absolutely fantastic. These things were designed, sorted and built by people with more than just passion. Look at the pictures at 13:00 where torque about the rotor shaft was measured by a bloke in a corner holding a makeshift gauge off a rope! Things are done the same today except they use a different technology to get the results. There were no computers used here people! Just practical engineering skills.
This was an awesome video. Without things like this the historical backstory would not be known. One thing struck me though - how little attention was paid to safety.
I always surprised when I watch the early flight films of the complete lack of any safety clothing or equipment. Fantastic story and very well narrated.
Life is not supposed to be all cushy. You live it and take your chances. Lawyers and insurance men, excuse me, salespeople, are just trying to exploit whatever they can to make a buck.
@@davidcarlson2895 Construction hard hats were invented in the USA by workers working on the Hoover Dam. They dipped their base ball caps and other hats in hot tar and allowed them to cool and harden to give them some protection from falling stones.
