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ROTORCRAFT PIONEERS


LES


MORRIS TEST PILOT


BY BRAD MCNALLY There is a crucial link between the


many great aeronautical engineers and talented mechanics that have made rotary wing flight possible and the pilots who have maximized the unique capabilities of the helicopter. This link is the heli- copter test pilot. The test pilot is the one who shows what the aircraft is capable of, pushes it to define its limits and provides the feedback necessary for the engineers to refine the design.


One of the first


true helicopter test pilots was a man named Les Morris. In the 1940s Morris’s work as a test pilot helped Igor Sikorsky perfect the single main rotor and tail rotor design and bring the heli- copter from one experimental aircraft to


full scale production in only several years.


Charles Lester Morris was born in New Haven, CT on October 20, 1908. Better known as Les to most people, Morris’s parents were prominent mem- bers of society. His father was a well- known lawyer who was active in politics, running for Governor of Connecticut three times. Morris’s mother was one of the first women ever to receive a doctor- ate from Yale. Morris spent his child- hood in Connecticut and went on to attend Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School as a member of the class of 1932. The summer prior to going to Yale, Les attended the Curtiss Flying School on


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