Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. At the start of the war aircraft were primitive having only been in existence for a decade and were used almost exclusively for recon and static balloons continued to be used throughout the war. you are both right. World War I was the first major war where airplanes were used as a significant part of the military. At first, aircraft were unarmed and employed for reconnaissance , serving basically as extensions of the eyes of the ground commander. When they were not carrying patients, the helicopters were used for law enforcement and traffic control. The ferry carrier, USNS Core, arrives in Saigon with the first U.S. helicopter unit. The Army bought its first helicopter, a Vought-Sikorsky XR-4, on January 10, 1941, and operated a few improved models of that aircraft in Europe and Asia during the later stages of World War II. The British also became interested in the Sikorsky helicopters, and they formed the Helicopter Training School as RAF Andover. From there, the machine gun was finally fixed to these aircraft to create the 'fighter' aeroplane. While the first helicopter flight was only 3 years after the first airplane flight, helicopters took a while to 'get it right'. Early forms were typically unarmed and used in the reconnaissance role until personal weapons were added. 1970 the first permanent civil air ambulance helicopter, Christoph 1, entered service at the Hospital of Harlaching, Munich, Germany. Yes the helicopter was invented and flew as early as 1907 but the first production and usable helicopter wasn't until after the 2 World War. The First World War saw the real birth of military airpower and a rapid advance of the technology involved. They were used in extremely limited numbers during the later years of WWII but the Korean War was the first conflict they saw wide use… SO! When not in use, the choppers began to be used for medical evacuations. The airplane was invented by the Wright Brothers in 1903, just 11 years before the start of World War I. The First World War. The Korean war was the first time Vertical Envelopment was used, or the use of helicopters to assist troops in battle. Powered aircraft were first used in war in 1911, by the Italians against the Turks near Tripoli, but it was not until the Great War of 1914–18 that their use became widespread. In where Eagles dare I believe the helicopter used is a Bell Souix. Other uses of the R-4 were in the South Pacific, where it was used to ferry parts for aircraft repair. When the war first began, aircraft played a small role in warfare, but, by the end of the war, the air force had become an important branch of the armed forces. Aircraft played a pivotal role for all sides of World War 1 when the conflict began in 1914. This contingent included 33 Vertol H-21C Shawnee helicopters and 400 air this wasn't invented until the late 1940's and went into production in the 1950's. Germany continued its helicopter development during World War II and was the first to place a helicopter, the Flettner Kolibri, into mass production. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production , [6] with 131 aircraft … The first recorded use of a U.S. helicopter in combat came in May 1944, when an Army chopper rescued four downed airmen behind enemy lines in Burma.