The Dirigible Helicopter: Korean-American Inventor Young Ha Koun's Ambitious attempt to Make Aircraft Survivable in the Event of Loss of Control

C. Sundiata Cowels

doi:10.4050/F-0080-2024-1123

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The Dirigible Helicopter: Korean-American Inventor Young Ha Koun's Ambitious attempt to Make Aircraft Survivable in the Event of Loss of Control

C. Sundiata Cowels, Future iNCITE!

May 7, 2024

https://doi.org/10.4050/F-0080-2024-1123

Abstract:
Revealed in 1941, the Dirigible Helicopter or 'Koun's Craft,' was an ambitious but ill-fated fusion of convertiplane and lighter-than-air technology. This S/VTOL (Short/Vertical Take Off and Landing) concept (a veritable puzzle of diverse airplane parts) was powered by a single, tilting propeller engine and was affixed with wing mounted, helium filled enclosures for additional buoyancy. Dismissed historically as being an eccentric folly of its layman inventor, Korean-American Young Ha Koun, the development of the Dirigible Helicopter has never been thoroughly studied. This paper will examine the origins of this unique design, its creator's possible motivations for building such an aircraft, and successor convertiplane concepts that attempt to achieve the same purpose to this day.