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George de Bothezat ((ルーマニア語、モルドバ語():Gheorghe Botezatu), (ロシア語:''Георгий Александрович Ботезат''), June 7, 1882 – February 1, 1940) was a Bessarabian-born〔 (of Moldavian ethnicity) Russian American engineer, businessman, and pioneer of helicopter flight. ==Biography== George de Bothezat was born in 1882 in Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire, into a family of Moldavian landlords.〔(Gheorghe Botezatu ) at The National Library of Moldova 〕 After graduating the School of Exact Sciences in Kishinev (Chișinău),〔(School of exact science activity in Chişinău in period of 1873-1918 ) at nationalmuseum.md〕 he went to the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Iași, in Romania.〔 In 1902, he started attending the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, then Montefiore Electrotechnical Institute in Liege, Belgium (between 1905 and 1907), and graduated as engineer from Kharkov Polytechnical in 1908.〔 He then continued his postgraduate studies at the University of Göttingen and Humboldt University of Berlin (1908-1909), and received, in 1911, his Ph.D. at Sorbonne, for a study of aircraft stability (''Étude de la Stabilité de l`aeroplane'').〔(Étude de la stabilité de l'aéroplane ) at catalog.hathitrust.org〕 In 1911, he joined the Faculty of Shipbuilding from the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University,〔 and continued theoretical studies of flight along with Stephen Timoshenko, Alexey Lebedev and Alexander Vanderfleet. His scientific interests gradually moved from general aerodynamic theory to applied studies of propellers.〔(Ботезат Георгий Александрович ), Institute of history of science and technology, Russian Academy of Sciences 〕〔Mikheev, p. 175.〕 In 1914, de Bothezat accepted the position of director at the Polytechnical Institute in Novocherkassk, but the outbreak of World War I compelled him to return to Saint Petersburg and join the Technical Commission of the Imperial Russian Air Force. In 1915, de Bothezat published standard bombing tables for the Air Forces, and in 1916 he was appointed chief of the ''Main Airfield'' in Saint Petersburg – Russia's first flight research facility. He managed the design team of the DEKA aircraft plant in Saint Petersburg, and was credited with the design of a single-engined aircraft that was tested in 1917.〔〔 In May 1918, with his homeland in the throes of the Russian Revolution, de Bothezat fled from the Bolsheviks to the United States. In June 1918, he was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Columbia University.〔〔Mikheev, p. 176.〕 In 1921, the US Army Air Service hired de Bothezat to build a prototype helicopter. The quadrotor helicopter, known simply as the de Bothezat helicopter, was built by de Bothezat and Ivan Jerome in the hangars of Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio.〔 The first flight turned out to be surprisingly successful for a machine that had been built without prototyping.〔''(Why Don't We Fly Straight Up? )''. Popular Science, February 1928 (Vol. 112, No. 2) p. 126.〕 In 1922, their "flying octopus" flew many times, although slowly and at low altitudes.〔Leishman, p. 25.〕 In fact, its horizontal motion was induced by wind more than by the pilot's controls.〔 The Army, now more interested in autogyros, cancelled the underperforming project.〔〔 De Bothezat returned to New York City and started his own business in making industrial fans, which was incorporated in 1926 as ''de Bothezat Impeller Company, Inc.''〔The company survived its founder. A notable civil law case, ''American Machine & Metals, Inc. v. de Bothezat Impeller Co., Inc.'' took place in 1948.〕 The company's axial fans were installed on US Navy cruisers, but this was as far as de Bothezat would go in dealing with the government. He continued publishing essays on topics ranging from flight dynamics to economics of the Great Depression.〔 His 1936 book ''Back to Newton'' attacked Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the whole world of contemporary academics "who are utterly unable to acquaint themselves with the subject".〔Gardner, p. 84.〕 Einstein personally refuted de Bothezat's claim at a public lecture given by de Bothezat at Princeton on 15 June 1935.〔Chiles, pp. 62–64.〕 He worked for the film industry, designing mechanical special effects props for Dudley Murphy's ''The Love of Sunya'' (1927).〔Delson, pp. 74–75.〕 De Bothezat returned to helicopters in 1938. His new company was incorporated as ''Air-Screw Research Syndicate'' and later renamed ''Helicopter Corporation of America''. Boris Sergievsky, former test pilot of Sikorsky Aircraft, became de Bothezat's partner and test pilot.〔He was laid off by Sikorsky Aircraft as the company imploded due to falling demand for flying boats.〕 De Bothezat's new helicopter was a coaxial design, with the engine mounted ''between'' two rotors. The first machine, SV-2, was built and tested on Roosevelt Field in 1938; after the tests de Bothezat and Sergievsky rebuilt it into a heavier SV-5. However de Bothezat, who was also designing a one-man "personal helicopter" for infantrymen,〔''(One-Man Helicopters Give Soldiers Wings )''. Popular Science, March 1940 p. 129.〕 died before the SV-5 could be properly tested.〔Mikheev, p. 177.〕 The new machine proved to be unstable and crashed; Sergievsky escaped unharmed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George de Bothezat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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