The First Vertical Flight

The first vertical flight machine in the United States seems to have been developed by Emile Berliner and John Newton Williams. Berliner designed what may have been the first production rc helicopter simulation rotary aircraft engine, the 36-horsepower (27-kilowatt) Adams-Farwell engine. In 1908, Williams constructed a coaxial machine for Berliner using two of these engines. On May 4, he was the first to fly a rc helicopter at least one kilometer (0.6 mile) in a closed circuit in a 5,550-foot (1.692-kilometer) flight that lasted 14 minutes and rose to 50 feet (15 meters).

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