National Helicopter Museum National Helicopter Museum traces the evolution of the rotary wing from early predecessors like the boomerang and Chinese tops to designs by Leonardo da Vinci and George Cayley to early motorized experiments to modern helicopters of today. Igor Sikorsky's first helicopter success in Stratford on September 14, 1939 is documented as well as his subsequent productions. Also displayed are the small gas turbine engines developed locally by Dr. Anselm Franz at Avco Lycoming which power such helicopters as the Bell Helicopter UH-1 Iroquois or "Huey" and the Boeing CH-47 Chinook. Other exhibits include ones on tilt rotor development; current photos
Chinook wind Chinook wind Chinook winds , or simply Chinooks, are föhn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges, although the original usage is in reference to wet, warm coastal winds in the Pacific Northwest. Chinook is claimed by popular folk-etymology to mean 'ice-eater', however it is the name of the people in the region where the usage was first derived. The reference to a wind or weather system, simply 'a Chinook', originally meant a warming wind from the ocean into the interior regions of the Pacific Northwest of the