The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread to discuss the "history of helicopters".


A Bell 206 helicopter of the Los Angeles Police Department

The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter

James R. Chiles

Synopsis

From transforming the ways of war to offering godlike views of inaccessible spots, revolutionizing rescues worldwide, and providing some of our most-watched TV moments—including the cloud of newscopters that trailed O. J. Simpson’s Bronco—the helicopter is far more capable than early inventors expected. Now James Chiles profiles the many helicoptrians who contributed to the development of this amazing machine, and pays tribute to the selfless heroism of pilots and crews. A virtual flying lesson and scientific adventure tale, The God Machine is more than the history of an invention; it is a journey into the minds of imaginative thinkers and a fascinating look at the ways they changed our world.

Chariots of the Damned: Helicopter Special Operations from Vietnam to Kosovo

by Mike Ryan

Synopsis

When F-16 pilot Scott O'Grady was shot down over Bosnia, a rescue mission was launched immediately. It involved nearly 100 aircraft, but succeeded in plucking him to safety in broad daylight. The pilot of the only F-117 Stealth bomber to have ever been shot down was spirited away with equal success. The USAF's elite special Operations Group is the product of many years of hard experience, but only now is it possible to reveal how many of its most famous missions were conducted.

Major Mike McKinney and Mike Ryan investigate the origins of the Special Operations Group and the experience of early rescue missions in Vietnam. The grisly fate awaiting captured American fliers spurred the USAF to develop new weapons and tactics to fight their way through intense enemy anti-aircraft fire. Sometimes the rescue of a single man would escalate into a major military operation - one was later filmed as BAT-21 starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover. If the ultimate Vietnam rescue mission, the Son Tay raid, was a failure, it did demonstrate how far techniques and equipment had evolved.

From disaster at Desert 1 to the Gulf War, Bosnia and the tragedy in Somalia, Chariots of the Damned takes you on an edge of the seat ride into some of the most incredible battles of recent times.
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Green Hornets: The History of the U.S. Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron

by Wayne Mutza
Synopsis

In this fascinating, detailed account, Wayne Mutza takes a look deep inside this extraordinary, little-known, but very special unit of the U.S. Air Force. Published here for the first time is the colorful history of the men and their helicopters that made their living with the legendary SOG teams of the Army Special Forces. From secret cross-border missions during the Vietnam War to current operations in the Middle East. Also included is a special section of Green Hornet emblems, and detailed lists of every aircraft flown by the 20th Special Operations Squadron.

Lords of Darkness: A History of the 45th Avn Bn (Sp Ops) and Okarng Aviation

by Billy R. Wood

Synopsis

Prior to 1979, you probably hadn't heard of counterterrorism or Special Operations. Even so, special warriors have been around since Moses sent Joshua to spy out the land of Canaan. In 1986, Colonel Billy R. Wood served as the operations officer of the newly organized 45th Aviation Battalion (Special Operations). This unit was highly classified. The special operations training and missions carried out by the team were conducted in secret, and members couldn't even tell their wives and families where they were going. These soldiers were called the Lords of Darkness. Prior to its formation, much was written about the failed hostage rescue mission in Iran. The Pentagon leadership implied, "Whatever the costs, whatever we do, we can never have another Desert One." Secret exercises were conducted with modified aircraft and soon-to-be-skilled night flyers of Task Force 160, today known as "Night Stalkers." What you didn't read about was the "other" US Army Special Operations Aviation Battalion-an Army National Guard unit.Highly classified and therefore less known, it was a "mirror image" special aviation unit. You didn't realize they existed because you weren't supposed to know. These teachers, businessmen, lawyers, salesman, citizen soldiers, and traditional guardsmen were called the Lords of Darkness of the Oklahoma Army National Guard. The night belonged to them-and their hearts belonged to aviation.

The Night Stalkers: Top Secret Missions of the U.S. Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment

by Michael J. Durant

Synopsis

From the authors of the bestselling In the Company of Heroes come the thrilling, never-before-heard stories of the Army's elite aviation unit, the most daring and professional helicopter crews in the world.

In his first book, Michael Durant told his harrowing tale of being shot down in his Blackhawk over Mogadishu and held captive by a Somali warlord. It was a remarkable account, particularly because Special Operations pilots are notoriously reticent-they don't talk about their missions, at least not to anyone outside their small community. But now, with the publication of The Night Stalkers, Durant and Steven Hartov shed a fascinating light on these mysterious super commandos and take readers into a world they have only imagined.

From Iran to Grenada to Iraq, the 160th SOAR (A) has been at the point of the spear and in the thick of combat, delivering and supporting Delta operators, Rangers, and SEAL teams to any target, at any point on the globe, in all weather-night or day. Simply put, they are the best of the best, and here for the first time are their hair-raising true stories of battle, capture, victory, and loss.

Great adds Bryan and Jerome.

A short biography of the man who made the helicopter a reality.

Helicopter Man: Igor Sikorsky and His Amazing Invention

by Edwin Brit Wyckoff (no photo)

Synopsis

Leonard da Vinci drew pictures of helicopters; Wilbur Wright said they would never work. But Igor Sikorsky proved him wrong, inventing the first working helicopter and building the company that still bears his name.

All you need to know about the amazing helicopter and its many uses.

Helicopters: Military, Civilian, and Rescue Rotorcraft

by Robert Jackson(no photo)

Synopsis:

Duck your head, and climb aboard 120 of the most important rotorcraft ever designed with former pilot and navigation instructor, Robert Jackson. In this comprehensive guide to the history and development of helicopters, Mr. Jackson delivers an authoritative A to Z catalog, from early experimental autogyros and basic designs like the Sikorsky R-4, to classics like the Bell UH-1—the "Huey"—that revolutionized military transport during the Vietnam War and the McDonnell-Douglas A1-1-64 Apache used for combat in the Balkans and Iraq. Each featured helicopter is covered in great detail, with graphic boxes outlining its development, technical specs, performance data, and more. With over 2000 color and black-and-white photographs and artwork, this fascinating history of the helicopter is a memorable flight indeed.

Helicopter Theory

by Wayne Johnson(no photo)

Synopsis:

The history of the helicopter may be traced back to the Chinese flying top (c. 400 BC) and to the work of Leonardo da Vinci, who sketched designs for a vertical flight machine utilizing a screw-type propeller. In the late 19th-century, Thomas Edison experimented with helicopter models, realizing that no such machine would be able to fly until the development of a sufficiently lightweight engine. When the internal combustion gasoline engine came on the scene around 1900, the stage was set for the real development of helicopter technology.
While this text provides a concise history of helicopter development, its true purpose is to provide the engineering analysis required to design a highly successful rotorcraft. Toward that end the book offers thorough, comprehensive coverage of the theory of helicopter flight: the elements of vertical flight, forward flight, performance, design, mathematics of rotating systems, rotary wing dynamics and aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, stability and control, stall, noise and more.
Wayne Johnson has worked for the U.S. Army and NASA at the Ames Research Center in California. Through his company Johnson Aeronautics, he is engaged in the development of software that is used throughout the world for the analysis of rotorcraft. In this book, Dr. Johnson has compiled a monumental resource that is essential reading for any student or aeronautical engineer interested in the design and development of vertical-flight aircraft.

An Illustrated A-Z Directory of Military Helicopters: Featuring over 80 helicopters shown in more than 300 historical and modern photographs

by Francis Crosby (no photo)

Synopsis:

An expertly written and illustrated survey of this military transport, including specifications, and many rare images.

Without Parachutes: How I Survived 1,000 Attack Helicopter Combat Missions in Vietnam

by Jerry W. Childers (no photo)

Synopsis:

This book straps the reader into the cockpit with an attack helicopter pioneer as he recalls three years of Vietnam combat and a quarter century of flying Army aircraft.

He arrived in Vietnam in 1964 and volunteered to join the world's first attack helicopter company. The Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company (UTT) had deployed to Vietnam in 1962. It came equipped with the U.S. Army's brand new UH-1 Huey, a helicopter originally designed as an aerial ambulance.

The crews, not happy with a passive combat role, began experimenting with ways to strap guns on their aircraft and attack the enemy. Through a deadly process of trial and error the pilots pushed their machines to the edge. Mistakes were made, crews were lost and lessons were learned. These lessons evolved into combat tactics and became fondly known as the 12 Cardinal Rules of Attack Helicopter Combat. Upon joining the unit the author learned about the rules. He studied them and on his first day in combat, developed his own 13th rule.

Over his ensuing three years in Vietnam, the rules, especially the 13th, helped him survive over one thousand combat missions. This book provides the reader with a cockpit level view of dozens of those missions and describes several additional near disaster situations encountered by the author during over 25 years flying Army Aircraft.

The author is successful in striking a balance between the grim realities of combat and the often humorous aspects of life among a group of high spirited aviators who fly into the jaws of death daily without a parachute on their back.

He suggests that the 13 rules, although developed during a different war and at a different time, are applicable to armed helicopter combat operations in the 21st Century. The book contains about 200 pages and is nicely illustrated with 50 photographs.