![]() Harold Norton of Brewster, a pilot who built the replica, said the Purvis-Wilson helicopter may have been capable of hovering a few feet but that it was incapable of horizontal flight. Other helicopters had been built and flown, but in 1910 the government granted the Goodland machine the first patent for any rotary-winged aircraft in the country. Daise said a second machine took to the air in June 1910, "but it was torn up in the air and never rebuilt." The company folded, and its equipment was sold a few months later to one of the original investors. "As I understand, it was hooked to a steam engine that got it a few feet off the ground."īut that was enough to convince residents to buy stock in the venture, the Goodland Aviation Co. "It didn't fly," said William Daise, curator of the High Plains Museum in Goodland, which displays a 1976 replica of the helicopter. Purvis built the machine, which had twin sets of blades that spun in opposite directions, and gave a demonstration flight on Thanksgiving Day 1909. In 1909 a couple of Rock Island railroad machinists in Goodland quit their jobs to build a primitive helicopter. A special thank you to Linda Holton for her assistance in collecting the information and providing it to us. USAF ROTORHEADS wishes to thank the High Plains Museum of Goodland KS for giving us permission to use the information and pictures contained on this page.
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