Jacob Ellehammer

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Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer
Born June 14, 1871
Bakkebølle
Died May 20, 1946
Copenhagen
Nationality Danish
Education Watchmaker, mechanic
Engineering career
Engineering discipline Aviation
Significant design Ellehammer semi-biplane

Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer (June 14, 1871 – May 20, 1946) was a Danish watchmaker and inventor born in Bakkebølle, Denmark. He is remembered chiefly for his contributions to powered flight.

1914 photo of Ellehammer's coaxial helicopter hovering
Following the end of his apprenticeship as a watchmaker he moved to Copenhagen where he worked as an electronics mechanic before establishing his own company in 1898. In the beginning he produced cigarette machines, beverage machines and other electronic machinery. In 1904 he produced his first motorcycle, the Elleham motorcycle. In 1905, he constructed a monoplane, and in the following year a "semi-biplane". In this latter machine, he made a tethered flight on 12 September 1906.
1935 photo of Ellehammer's disc-rotor compound helicopter model
Ellehammer's later inventions included a successful triplane and helicopter. His helicopter was a coaxial machine. A famous photo shows it hovering in 1914, though there is no evidence that it was successful in achieving translational flight. Ellehammer later studied a disc-rotor configuration - a compound helicopter with coaxial blades that extended from the hub for hover, and retracted for high speed vertical flight. Although a wind tunnel model was constructed, there's no evidence that anything more was studied.

See also

References

  • The Early Years (Aviation Century), 2003, Ron Dick, Amanda Wright Lane, Dan Patterson, Boston Mills Press, ISBN 1-55046-407-8
  • Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age, 2004, Tom D. Crouch, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-32620-9
  • 100 Years of Flight: A Chronology of Aerospace History, 1903-2003 (Library of Flight Series), 2003, Frank H. Winter, F. Robert Van Der Linden, AIAA, ISBN 1-56347-562-6

External links

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