tough test pilot

[jim63]

I guess seatbelts were next on the to do list.

[MightyGem]

Possibly Igor Sikorsky??

[krypton_john]

Yep. Lucky for him he was close to the hub where the blades are moving relatively slowly.

[Fareastdriver]

That's an old film, I think it was during the winter of 1944. It's a Bell archive shot during early tie-down trials. I think the pilot was a USAAF test pilot.

[Bravo73]

Definitely early Bell prototype.

Didn't you count the number of blades? That's the granddaddy to the '47, Huey and Jetbanger.



PS The chap being interviewed is Arthur Young.

[Tailspin Turtle]

Robert M Stanley

He was Bell Aircraft's chief test pilot at the time. Bell's small helicopter design and development team was located at an offsite facility in Gardenville, New York at the time. The Bell Model 30 had just been hovered the month before in tethered testing, first by its inventor, Arthur Young (a non-pilot) and then young Floyd Carlson, a Bell test pilot. Stanley tried to fly it in January 1943. As you can see, it is still tethered but not tightly enough. After Stanley's rough introduction to helicopters, he left further helicopter testing to Carlson.

[jim63]

Stanley's rough introduction to helicopters

That's putting it lightly

he left further helicopter testing to Carlson.

Smart man,I would have done the same.Those pilots had to have some nerve to get into those early machines.Someday some unsuspecting person might have to crawl into something like this and see if it works

[prehar]

so what exactly might this be...have'nt seen one like it ...is it a personal vehicle ??

[Agaricus bisporus]

It's some luvvie's idea of a styling exercise. Note the tail rotor tip about an inch from the ground. Other equally useless items on their website seem to be motorcycles with no handlebars and nowhere to sit, and a wheelbarrow with disk brakes. zzz

[MightyGem]

That's an old film,

You don't say.