Jacques Bréguet was one of the more successful inventors of the helicopter. He created the Gyroplane-Laboratoire. The helicopter’s first test flight almost ended in disaster. It tipped over and almost slice n’ diced his benefactors. After major revision he tested again and was such a success that the French Air Ministry gave him a contract. In this contract they covered his flight trials and offered a 1000 franc bonus if he could achieve all the performance goals he had set. He ended up achieving everything he set out to achieve, including setting several records. The records included fastest flight, highest flight, and hovering for the longest time. One big concern was what would happen to a helicopter if the engine failed while the helicopter was in flight. When Jacques did tests on this and tried to solve the problem he failed miserably.

Anton Flettner was a German aeronautical scientist after losing his first helicopter while it was being transported Anton turned to auto gyros. He built the F1 184 and low and behold it was a major success. So he began making the Fa 61 or Focke-Achgelis. Evan as the impressive results came back he began building the Fl 265. This was a very small helicopter. There are other helicopters that he built but the main one was Kolibri. This helicopter was the first to use two closely intermeshing rotors. These rotors proved to be another step towards solving the control and torque problems with helicopters.

Igor Skiorsky, a Russian who had immigrated to the United States, eventually made the most significant advances. Although Sikorsky is not generally credited with inventing any new solutions to the problems of controlling a helicopter in flight, he is widely regarded as the person who improved existing technology and made the helicopter practical and successful.