This past weekend we had brunch at a splendid little non-towered General Aviation airport called Sky Acres. One of the things that makes this field special is that every seat in the ‘Hangar Cafe’ faces the field. Thus one dines on French Toast or Eggs Benedict or whatever fat-ass breakfast you wish to indulge in while watching a charming collection of various single-piston classics parade about–Bonanzas, Pipers, Grummans all made appearances. But the flying machine I found most striking was a very large Sikorsky helicopter, which set down with much authority and spat out about half-a-dozen passengers. Others were impressed as well, and soon a number of us were out there with phones in hands, documenting the machine while its pilot sat, bored and unsmiling, in his pilots seat. This led me to wonder why I haven’t yet shown any interest in Helicopters during this past year of obsessive aviation education. When did they come into being? What were the first ones made of? What did they look like? The above short video answers most of these questions and, as you might expect, the results are pretty absurd. In fact, they don’t look quite real–as if they were deliberately made to self-sabatoge and provide a little aviation humor in some long-forgotten silent comedy. Enjoy the ride (har).