Koun Aircraft Dirigible Helicopter

[VictorXL188]

Came across a pic of the Koun Aircraft Dirigible Helicopter at https://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/NY/Airfields_NY_LongIs_Nassau.htm and having never heard of it before, thought that other members may appreciate it. I saw that one pic had been posted on this site in a discussion on ugly aircraft. Apparently the photo was taken in 1939 of this most unusual aircraft which was built at Roosevelt Field, over the course of 5 years by Young Ho Koun (pictured in the cockpit, the first Chinese American to develop an aircraft). This extremely unorthodox machine featured 2 large wing-mounted boxes filled with compressed helium & a Continental engine which could be tilted vertically. The FAA gave the aircraft a registration number, but not an experimental certificate. The sole flight attempt was performed in front of media. After many failed engine start attempts, the engine was started without the pilot & the vehicle was damaged while securing it. The aircraft was not publicly displayed again, and was never able to achieve flight.

 

[Grey Havoc]

An interesting design concept that deserved more success.

 

[fortrena]

The gentleman in question may be perhaps Korean. A Young Ho Koun (Yeon Ho-kon?) was said to be one of the six Korean students enrolled at Ohio State University, in Columbus, in March 1919. He was a freshman engineering student.

That said, the following 1941 article states that this gentleman was Chinese. Worse still for my hypothesis, at age 37, he would have been too young to be in university in 1919.

Still, this gentleman began to apply for patents to protect his ideas no later than 1926. If aged 37 in 1941, he would have been only 22 in 1926.

 

[riggerrob]

Helium balloons would have been much lighter if they were cylindrical and flexible.

 

[Aerohydro]

This image is from the Aerofiles entry on Koun (scroll down)

For more about this craft, here are two further links:

HistoryNet - Kouns-Craft “Dirigible Helicopter” (an especially good account)

Wikipedia - Koun Aircraft Dirigible Helicopter

Koun also took out a series of patents:

US Patents granted to Koun Young Ho

Cheers,
Paul

 

[hesham]

Hi,

Charlie Ho Koun holding right wing of his Helicopter Blimp Roosevelt Field

nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org

 

[Stargazer]

I also have this item (with a slightly different photo), but I do not know where it was taken from: