Brguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire (1935)

The Gyroplane Laboratoire was a French early helicopter prototype. Its designer, Frenchman Louis Bréguet, had already experimented with rotorcraft in 1909; however, he chose to concentrate on airplanes until the end of the 1920s. In 1929 he announced a set of patents which addressed the flight stabilization of rotorcraft, and, in 1931, Bréguet created the Syndicat d'Etudes de Gyroplane (French for “Syndicate for Gyroplane Studies“), together with Rene Dorand as technical director. The Bréguet Dorand aircraft was finished in 1933. After ground tests and an accident, the first flight took place on 26 June 1935. Development was abandoned with the outbreak of World War II. éguet-Dorand_Gyroplane_Laboratoire