<P> In 1885, Thomas Edison was given US $1,000 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., to conduct experiments towards developing flight . Edison built a helicopter and used the paper for a stock ticker to create guncotton, with which he attempted to power an internal combustion engine . The helicopter was damaged by explosions and one of his workers was badly burned . Edison reported that it would take a motor with a ratio of three to four pounds per horsepower produced to be successful, based on his experiments . Ján Bahýľ, a Slovak inventor, adapted the internal combustion engine to power his helicopter model that reached a height of 0.5 meters (1.6 ft) in 1901 . On 5 May 1905, his helicopter reached four meters (13 ft) in altitude and flew for over 1,500 meters (4,900 ft). In 1908, Edison patented his own design for a helicopter powered by a gasoline engine with box kites attached to a mast by cables for a rotor, but it never flew . </P> <P> In 1906, two French brothers, Jacques and Louis Breguet, began experimenting with airfoils for helicopters . In 1907, those experiments resulted in the Gyroplane No. 1, possibly as the earliest known example of a quadcopter . Although there is some uncertainty about the date, sometime between 14 August and 29 September 1907, the Gyroplane No. 1 lifted its pilot into the air about two feet (0.6 m) for a minute . The Gyroplane No. 1 proved to be extremely unsteady and required a man at each corner of the airframe to hold it steady . For this reason, the flights of the Gyroplane No. 1 are considered to be the first manned flight of a helicopter, but not a free or untethered flight . </P> <P> That same year, fellow French inventor Paul Cornu designed and built a Cornu helicopter that used two 20 - foot (6 m) counter-rotating rotors driven by a 24 hp (18 kW) Antoinette engine . On 13 November 1907, it lifted its inventor to 1 foot (0.3 m) and remained aloft for 20 seconds . Even though this flight did not surpass the flight of the Gyroplane No. 1, it was reported to be the first truly free flight with a pilot . Cornu's helicopter completed a few more flights and achieved a height of nearly 6.5 feet (2 m), but it proved to be unstable and was abandoned . </P> <P> In 1911, Slovenian philosopher and economist Ivan Slokar patented a helicopter configuration . </P>

Who made the first helicopter in the world