Is it that people interested in vertical flight have wider preoccupations, or just that people with wider preoccupations are often interested in vertical flight?
Da Vinci's helicopter may yet be used in drones, its airscrew apparently quieter and more efficient than what is generally used. He was known though to dabble in paint, medicine and siege-engines for warring city-states beside much else.
Wittgenstein, seen here flying experimental kites in the hills around the university in Manchester were he was based, patented a tip-jet helicopter before moving onward to philosophical contemplations.
Tesla final patent refers to a combination helicopter/airplane, whose use of a turbine to power it pre-dates the actual patenting of the device by Frank Whittle some years later... but it didn't stop him dreaming of it, beside much else in the modern world.
And Arthur Young's experiments with model helicopters persuaded Bell to take him on to develop the Model 30, pre-cursor to the fabulously successful MASH model 47 that I used to watch spraying crops (and me) on the South West Lancashire plain.
Don't begin to compare myself to any of the above ~ I considering my own efforts as being no more than dandruff on the shoulders of giants.
