In other words, NASA's first charter was the development of advanced aeronautical vehicles like airplanes and helicopters. NASA does a whole lot more than just space. However, the space aspect of NASA gets most of the publicity, so that's why you may not be familiar with the other things NASA does. The really neat thing about helicopters is that they can practically take off and land almost anywhere. They don't need a runway like regular airplanes because helicopters can take off and land vertically.
Advanced helicopters are vehicles like are pushing the current bounds of technology.
They are quieter, safer, faster, and more efficient. One type of advanced helicopter is the tilt rotor. Now this is one cool vehicle. Then when it converts to a forward flight mode, the two rotors systems pivot forward and act as propellers to give the vehicle faster forward speed capability. There are films and videos of the tiltrotors available.