The first helicopter can be traced back hundreds of years. In the early fourteenth century, the Chinese made toy flying tops that consisted of four rotor blades attached to a spindle. String was wound on the spindle, and, when pulled, sent the rotors...

The invention of the helicopter was a long and difficult process. Although the first practical helicopter was developed years after the first successful flight of an airplane, the concept of rotary flight predates that of the fixed-wing plane and goes...

A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft...

State and federal officials on Saturday blamed each other for allowing nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters to sit idle while deadly wildfires ravaged Southern California, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to improve the state's response to battling wildfires.The head of the state's firefighting agency lashed...

A helicopter carrying aides to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed Monday as the Pakistani leader flew to Kashmir. Though blamed on a technical fault, the accident revived concern for Musharraf's safety as his war with Islamic militants intensifies.The army said four people died when the...

Sierra Leone's president grounded all commercial helicopters and suspended the country's transport minister Tuesday following a weekend crash that killed 22 people, officials said.The helicopter was ferrying Togolese soccer fans and sports officials _ including Togolese Minister for Youth and Sports Richard Attipoe _ to...

A helicopter is not necessarily a match for an angry moose. Instead of lying down after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, a moose charged a hovering helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft's tail rotor and forcing it to the ground.Neither the...