There's a thread over on Jet Blast, asking
"Is there a helicopter in existence which uses a steering wheel?
Well, they've come up with one
The Gazda Helicospeeder, built by Antoine Gazda, the inventor of the 20-mm rapid fire Oerlikon AA cannon. Designed by Hal Lemont. 1943-47. To quote one of the posts,
1. Control movement was as expected for pitch and roll, turning the wheel is left/right roll, pushing and pulling the wheel is pitch up/down. Collective up/down was done by vertically sliding the control up or down.
2. The little three bladed tail rotor seen in the picture had an additional use as a pusher prop when in cruise speed. Apparently the pilot had a lever which was connected to the g/b via a cable and when pulled it swiveled the gearbox aft thus turning the tail rotor into a pusher prop. The pivot mechanism was off a farm tractor.
There's not much that hasn't been thought of before
