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The first tandem-rotor helicopter, was nicknamed “The Flying Banana” because of its shape. This remarkable machine became the forerunner of the U.S Army CH-47 Chinook and the U.S. Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight. They are today’s major movers of troops, supplies, and equipment.

The inventor of “The Flying Banana” was Frank Piasecki, a Philadelphia native born in 1919 as the son of an immigrant tailor. When only a teenager Frank worked for manufacturer of a predecessor of helicopters, an autogiro. Later, Mr. Piasecki earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an aeronautical engineering degree from New York University. He then served as a designer for Platt-LePage Aircraft company which was attempting to develop Army helicopters. 

Mr. Piasecki also worked for himself. First, he worked in his garage where he built his own helicopter and flew it around his community. After leaving LePage he founded his own company, the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation.

As he continued designing, Frank Piasecki developed his most important contribution to the world of helicopters, the tandem-rotor transport helicopter. The word, rotor, refers to the blades that whirl above a helicopter. Because Mr. Piasecki’s new helicopter had tandem rotors, which means two, one on each end of the helicopter, cargo could be pulled up into the middle without causing the helicopter to lose its balance in the air. 

The transportation industry owes much to Frank Piasecki and his invention of the “Flying Banana.”

Buy The Flying Banana and Other Transportation to read more stories like this one.

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