Welcome to the leading edge of vertical lift. Founded in July, 1935 by Larry Bell as Bell Aircraft Corporation, today's Bell Helicopter continues to set the pace for the industry and expand the scope of vertical lift - but in those early days. "The company specialized in the design and production of fighter aircraft, first the XFM-1 Airacuda, a twin-engine fighter to oppose attacking bombers, and the the famous P-39 Airacobra. The company also designed and built the first P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, and the P-63 Kingcobra, the successor to the P-39. In 1941, just before the US entered into WWII, Larry Bell saw...a small [helicopter] model crafted by inventor and philosophy student, Arthur Middleton Young. In just six months, the team designed and constructed the first Bell helicopter, designing and fabricating parts as they went and solving problems with the use of mathematics, model experiments, intuition and trial-and-error.
