OEHMICHEN

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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15.10.1884 Châlons-sur-Marne/F - 10.7.1955 Paris/F

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Etienne Oehmichen graduated as an engineer from Ecole Centrale in 1908. After World War I he founded Oehmichen-Peugeot, an establishment that developed propulsion in aviation. From 1939 Oehmichen was a professor at Collège de France for air propulsion but retired in the same year because of serious health problems. After World War II he was a private consultant.

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Oehmichen's passion were flying machines referred to as helicopters today. In 1902, he had designed a model of an apparatus with rotating wings. His 1920 book describes the flight of birds that served him as an example for further development. In 1921 he presented a helicopter making elevations of up to 8 m from the ground. By suspending his apparatus in 1922 with a balloon filled with hydrogen he was able to launch a first flight with a four wing rotor and reached two years later a distance of one kilometer in a closed circuit. Until 1939 he designed in total seven helicopters and presented a number of related inventions, such as the aerodynamic balance for inclined wings and stroboscopes to study the flight of certain birds. These successes were opposed to a financial crisis of his establishment in Valentigney, such that Oehmichen accepted with pleasure the research position in Paris. Oehmichen may thus be considered the father of helicopters that are presently an important aviation element and compliment standard airplanes perfectly.

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_{Alphandéry, M.-F. (1962). Oehmichen, Etienne. Dictionnaire des inventeurs français: 256.}

_{Collection Seghers: Paris.}

_{Anonymous (1955). Prof. Etienne Oehmichen. Navigation 3(12): 419. Anonymous (2001). Oehmichen, Etienne. Who's who in France XXe siècle: 1508. Pelletan: Levallois-Perret.}

_{Cohen, Y. (1989). Un ingénieur mécanicien aux prises avec le vivant: Etienne Oehmichen. Les amateurs de sciences et de techniques. Cahiers d'histoire 27: 107-119.}

_{Oehmichen, E. (1920). Nos maîtres les oiseaux - Etude sur le vol animal et la récupération de l'énergie dans les fluides. Dunod: Paris.}

_{Oehmichen, E. (1938). Propulseurs et amortisseurs de chocs chez les animaux. Firmin-Didot: Paris.}

_{Oehmichen, E. (1938). La sécurité aérienne - Animaux et machines. Firmin-Didot: Paris. http://www.montbeliard.com/PAGES/GENERAL/DECOUVRIR/INVENTEURS/OEHMICHEN/E_oehmichen.html\#histoire http://www.montbeliard.com/PAGES/GENERAL/DECOUVRIR/INVENTEURS/OEHMICH EN/E_oehmichen.html\#histoire http://www.montbeliard.com/PAGES/GENERAL/DECOUVRIR/INVENTEURS/OEHMICHEN/E_oehmichen.html\#histoire P}