De Bothezat helicopter The de Bothezat helicopter , also known as the Jerome - de Bothezat Flying Octopus , was an experimental quadrotor helicopter built for the United States Army Air Service by George de Bothezat in the early 1920s , and was said at the time to be the first successful helicopter . Although its four massive six - bladed rotors allowed the craft to successfully fly , it suffered from complexity , control difficulties , and high pilot workload , and was reportedly only capable of forwards flight in a favorable wind . The Army canceled the program in 1924 , and the aircraft was scrapped . Development and Testing . Self - described as " the world ' s greatest scientist and outstanding mathematician " , and having written one of the first scientific paper s on the aerodynamics of rotary - wing flight , George de Bothezat was a Russian refugee who had fled to the United States in the wake of the Russian Revolution . Having written and lecture d extensively on rotorcraft theory , de Bothezat received a contract from the United States Army in 1921 for the construction of an experimental helicopter based on his own principles and those of his assistant Ivan Jerome . Establishing a workshop at McCook Field in Dayton , Ohio and working almost entirely without models or wind tunnels for testing , de Bothezat ' s helicopter was completed in December 1922 . Featuring four six - bladed rotors at the end of massive , bridge - like girders braced with piano wire , the craft had two vertical propellers – " steering airscrews " – for lateral control , and two additional three - bladed propellers mounted horizontally above the Le Rhône engine to provide airflow for cooling . The girders were angled such that the rotors tilted in towards the craft ' s center at an angle of five degrees , enhancing stability . The aircraft had two control wheels , a control stick , and foot pedals for control , with each rotor featuring variable - pitch blades for individual collective control . After initial ground testing , the de Bothezat machine made its first flight on 18 December 1922 , piloted by Major T . H . Bane of the Engineering Division , and hovering to a height of . The propellers for lateral control were soon found useless , and removed , while its original Le Rhône engine proved underpowered and was replaced by a Bentley rotary type . Over the next year , over one hundred flights were made , carrying up to four passengers in addition to its pilot , and setting records for duration ( 2 minutes 45 seconds ) and altitude ( ) for helicopter flight . Cancellation . Although de Bothezat ' s invention was hailed by Thomas Edison as " the first successful helicopter " , full control of the aircraft in flight remained elusive ; in addition , the aircraft required a favorable wind to achieve forwards flight . However , despite its faults , the de Bothezat helicopter did prove to be remarkably stable . De Bothezat wanted to build an improved version of the craft , but in 1924 , the Army Air Service decided to terminate further work on the project , canceling the contract and ordering the helicopter to be scrapped . However , the aircraft ' s control column has survived , and is on display in the Smithsonian Institution ' s Steven F . Udvar - Hazy Center . Although considered a failure by the Army on account of its complexity and unreliability , de Bothezat ' s difficult personality not helping his cause , the " Flying Octopus " had still reached a significant level of achievement , and it would be over twenty years before an American helicopter would better the machine ' s performance .