their two-bladed models.) Bell hired Young to move to Buffalo and—with a $250,000


budget—build two prototypes for a commercially viable, two- seat helicopter.


As a part of Young’s hiring, the new employee demanded that Bell hire Bartram “Bart” Kelley, too. Kelley was four years younger


than Young. Te pair had grown up together in Pennsylvania, with Kelley idolizing Young, who’d taught him about amateur (ham) radio and Morse code, as well as mechanics, helicopter aerodynamics, and other technical knowledge. Bell Aircraft and the team


Bartram Kelley


supporting Young’s work tussled over how to build a helicopter. Bell’s


folks thought Young’s team would draw plans, which they’d then take to the factory for production. “Tey didn’t understand that the whole thing was in the doing of it and not just drawing a picture,” Kelley recalled in 1995. After six months working together to sort things out, Young’s


team set up shop in a former Chrysler auto showroom in Gardenville, New York, about 20 miles southeast of the Bell Aircraft plant. Starting small with 7 individuals, the team never got much bigger than 30 people. “We had to be jacks of all trades,” said Kelley. Construction of Bell’s first helicopter, the Model 30, began in


June 1942. Te single-seat Ship 1 prototype rolled out six months later. Te Model 30 flew untethered for the first time on Jun. 26, 1943. Keen to beat Sikorsky Aircraft to market, Bell Aircraft


pushed forward with its two-seat configuration. Te resulting Bell Model 47 received the first US Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) helicopter type certificate on Mar. 8, 1946. Te first Bell 47s had sheet-metal cabins; salesmen said helicopters that looked like an automobile would be more appealing to buyers. Te Bell 47 saw extensive use in the Korean War, and its bubble canopy and metal-tube tail boom became famous, in part through roles in movies and television shows, including the hit show M*A*S*H. Outside of its success in casualty evacuations and cargo missions in the Korean War, the Bell 47 proved its civilian


Bell Helicopter contributed several iconic models to the civil fleet, as shown in this vintage Bell ad. | Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.


capabilities in agricultural and oil-field work. “It took more than 10 years to soundly establish a helicopter market,” Young noted. “It wasn’t until the Vietnam War that the helicopter really took off.” Larry Bell wasn’t around to see that evolution. Resigning as


company president in mid-September 1956, he passed away Oct. 20 of that year. In Young’s mind, his helicopter research was part of a larger plan. “I took up the helicopter program as an apprenticeship in how to do things,” he said, “sort of a ‘how does nature work’ effort.” Achieving type certification on the Bell 47 completed his work. He left Bell in 1947. Young turned his attention to philosophy, parapsychology,


and metaphysics. But he wasn’t done with rotorcraft. In the 1960s, he fleshed out an old idea for a variable-diameter prop- rotor for a tiltrotor, a 25-ft. version of which was ground-tested at Bell’s then-new headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Young died on May 30, 1995. Kelley continued to carry the torch. Becoming Bell’s chief


helicopter engineer in 1947, he flew every helicopter model the company produced through his retirement in 1974. He was instrumental in designing and developing the UH-1 “Huey” and supervised development of the XV-3 convertiplane, the 206 JetRanger, and the XV-15 tiltrotor. At the time of his retirement, the American Helicopter Society (now the Vertical Flight Society) stated that two-thirds of all the world’s helicopters had been designed by his department. Kelley passed away on Dec. 17, 1998.


SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE ROTOR 137


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