American Helicopter Museum & Education Center: Commemorating the Delaware Valley’s Contributions to Vertical Flight

Overview of the gallery at the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center. AHMEC/Photo by Jan Feighner

Nestled in a large but unassuming building at the Brandywine Airport, just northeast of  West Chester, Chester County, is a museum that may seem out of place in Pennsylvania: the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center. After all, Russian émigré Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972) flew the first successful helicopter in the United States at Stratford, Connecticut, on September 14, 1939, many miles from Pennsylvania’s lower Delaware Valley. Nevertheless, the roots of vertical flight run deep in the area and precede Sikorsky’s flight by a decade. It all started with a Spanish invention, the autogiro.

An autogiro in flight. AHMEC

The Autogiro Comes to Pennsylvania

The autogiro, one of the earliest successful powered vertical flying machines, was invented in 1923 by Spanish engineer and aviator Juan de la Cierva (1895–1936). It was essentially a plane with an unpowered rotor on top of the fuselage. Although it could not take off vertically or hover, it could gently descend vertically to the ground when the engines were cut off in flight. In 1929 aviation pioneer Harold Frederick Pitcairn (1897–1960) of Bryn Athyn, Montgomery County, bought the patent rights to the autogiro technology and brought it to the United States. Under the name Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Co., he manufactured these flying machines at his factory in Willow Grove, Montgomery County. While Pitcairn manufactured autogiros, he also improved upon their design. In 1930 he and his associates won the National Aeronautic Association’s prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy for the development of the autogiro.

In addition to manufacturing and redesigning autogiros, Pitcairn licensed their manufacture to other companies, such as the Kellett Autogiro Corp., also based in Willow Grove. Kellett not only produced Pitcairn’s designs but also developed its own prototype, the KD-1. Although the autogiro did not last as a viable aircraft, it was used for mail deliveries in the Philadelphia area. The city’s 30th Street Post Office even had a landing pad on its roof for autogiro mail deliveries. The autogiro was not a true helicopter, but the Pitcairn and Kellett companies served as training grounds for two of the most influential helicopter designers the Delaware Valley would produce: W. Laurence LePage (1902–85) and Frank Piasecki (1919–2008).

The Helicopter Industry Takes Off in the Delaware Valley

LePage began his career as an engineer at Pitcairn’s company before moving on to Kellett. There he designed the company’s first line of autogiros. LePage later left Kellett to become an independent contractor, unsuccessfully working to secure a contract to produce the German Focke Helicopter in the United States. In 1938 he partnered with Haviland Platt to form the Platt-LePage Aircraft Co. in Eddystone, Delaware County. In 1940 the company won the competition to produce helicopters for the U.S. Army Air Corps. The helicopters experienced severe control problems, which led to the cancellation of the contract. The company closed in 1946, but it lived on in the helicopters, designs and patents it sold to McDonnell Aircraft Corp.

This map of the Delaware Valley in the museum marks the highlights of rotary-wing aviation in the area. AHMEC

Piasecki began his career at Kellett prior to receiving his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at New York University. After graduation, he worked for LePage at Platt-LePage. Piasecki later formed his own company, the P-V Engineering Forum (later Piasecki Helicopter Corp.) in 1940. The company’s PV-2 became the second successful helicopter to fly in the United States, after Sikorsky’s VS-300. Piasecki would go on to build a tandem rotor helicopter capable of carrying heavy loads. This helicopter attracted the attention of the U.S. Navy, who awarded Piasecki a contract to build a prototype, which would become the XHRP-1. Nicknamed the “Flying Banana,” it was the first successful tandem rotor helicopter to fly in the United States. Piasecki’s design would lead to Boeing’s Chinook (for the U.S. Army) and Sea Knight (for the U.S. Navy and Marines). The Chinook would see extensive action from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

From left, the Hughes AH-6J Light Attack Helicopter, Sikorsky S-52/H05S, and Sikorsky S-51/R-5.
AHMEC/Photo by Jan Feighner

In 1956 Piasecki Helicopter Co. became the Vertol Corp. In 1960 Boeing acquired Vertol, creating Boeing Vertol. The company, now Boeing Defense, Space & Security, continues to operate at its plant in Eddystone and, as recently as 2015, was the largest employer in Delaware County. Piasecki would go on to form another company, the Piasecki Aircraft Corp., still in operation just down the street from Boeing, in Essington, Delaware County. In addition to Boeing and Piasecki, Leonardo/AgustaWestland and Sikorsky Global Helicopters/Lockheed Martin Corp. operate in the area. As these examples demonstrate, the legacy of the lower Delaware Valley as a hub of vertical flight and the helicopter industry continues to this day.

The Bell Boeing V-22 Tilt Rotor Osprey.
AHMEC/Photo by Jan Feighner

Telling the Stories of the Delaware Valley’s Contributions to Vertical Flight

The stories of the vertical flight pioneers and innovations mentioned above only scratch the surface of the helicopter heritage to be discovered at the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center. The center was established in 1993 by the American Helicopter Society’s Philadelphia Chapter to collect, preserve, research and exhibit the history of helicopter flight, with an emphasis on its development in the Delaware Valley. It first opened to the public in 1996. Vintage helicopters produced in the area are on display, along with examples of more recent aircraft and exhibits on the pioneers of the helicopter industry and the physics of vertical flight. A library and archives with more than 18,000 items is open by appointment. Lectures, courses, events and other programs are also available. Helicopter rides are offered on selected days.

The Boeing CH-46E Sea Knight with the Enstrom F28A, Cobra Flight Simulator and Boeing HH-47 CSAR Mock-up. AHMEC/Photo by Jan Feighner

The American Helicopter Museum & Education Center is located at 1220 American Boulevard, West Chester, Chester County. For more information on tours, events, programs and helicopter rides, visit the museum’s website at americanhelicopter.museum.

The authors and editor thank Jan Feighner, public relations coordinator at the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center, for providing information and photographs for this article.

Manfred Heinrich is a volunteer at the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center, where he refurbishes helicopters and is a docent. He worked for more than 40 years in the aerospace industry, starting in the Air Force as a flight engineer and crew chief on helicopters. He was a senior manufacturing engineer at both Boeing and Sikorsky.

Keith Heinrich is a historic preservation specialist who coordinates the National Register Program for the western part of Pennsylvania at PHMC’s State Historic Preservation Office.