Piasecki Aircraft Corporation
Piasecki Helicopter Corporation
Towards the end of 1943, Frank Nicholas Piasecki also appeared on the scene. Piasecki had worked for the Kellett Autogyro Company and Budd Aircraft. He had previously been involved in development of the Platt-LePage XR-1 and had undertaken a small-scale project of his own. Frank N. Piasecki, President of the PV-Engineering Forum, an organization he formed with F.M.Vinsie and Elliott Daland for the purpose of building his helicopter. Records show he is the first American to be granted a license to fly a helicopter before first qualifying to fly a conventional airplane. He did, however, previous to flying his own helicopter design, get in some flying time in a light plane. This helped him, too, in building the PV.
P-V Engineering Forum had completed several rotary-wing contracts for NACA and the U.S. Navy. The latter ordered an XHRP-1 helicopter which flew in 1945; following successful tests it was placed in production. Further orders followed for XHJP-1 tandemrotor helicopters for USN shipboard operations and the large XH-16, which had a fuselage of DC-4 size.
P-V Engineering became Piasecki Helicopter Corp in 1946, formed by Frank Piasecki, who was concerned in development of vertical-lift aircraft and flew the Model 59K Sky-Car flying jeep with an Artouste turboshaft engine in 1958 under a US Army contract.
Technical interchange agreements signed with Breguet Aviation in 1957 included sales rights for that company’s STOL transports in the U.S.A. and Canada, but these were dropped in 1962. Also provided engineering assistance to Agusta from 1960 for the AZ-101G and AZ-105 helicopters.
Built prototype of PiAC 16H-1C Pathfinder compound helicopter in 1962, continuing development under a U.S. Navy contract, but no production. Work included developing vectorod-thrust ducted propeller system for attack helicopters under U.S Army contract, definition of a possible U.S. Marine Corps medium-lift replacement type, and marketing the PZL Swidnik W-3A in the Americas and Pacific Rim regions.
After F N Piasecki was forced out of his company in 1955, he founded Piasecki Aircraft Corp, and his original company became Vertol Aircraft Corp, which in turn became a division of Boeing Co in 1960.
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