The Dawn of the Helicopter

Welcome to Shephard Studio’s Revolutions in Vertical Flight, brought to you in partnership with Bell.

The Revolutions in Vertical Flight podcast tells the little-known story of the history of rotorcraft, from the autogiro and helicopter, to the tiltrotor and eVTOL platforms in development today. 

Revolutions in Vertical Flight reveals the stories of a small group of pioneers, the visions and beliefs that drove them, and their approach to invention and innovation.

And the Shephard Studio podcast series looks at the vertical flight innovation underway today, revealing how it will transform military operations and revolutionise urban mobility.

In this episode, we discover how a young engineer working out of his parents barn was to profound effect on the future direction of the helicopter industry as well as the fortunes of a fighter aircraft manufacturer by the name of Bell.

And we hear the story of Frank Robinson, whose vision of a small, cos-effective helicopter was to entirely transform the sector.