Tags: Aircraft.
The Cornu helicopter was an experimental helicopter built in France in 1907 and widely credited with the first free flight of a rotary-wing aircraft when it took to the air on 13 November. Built by bicycle-maker Paul Cornu it was an open-framework structure built around a curved steel tube that carried a rotor at either end and the engine and pilot in the middle. Power was transmitted to the rotors by a drive belt that linked both rotors and spun them in opposite directions.
