Boeing Vertol Company

The Boeing Vertol Company is a major developer and builder of helicopters.

Vertol had its origin in a group of young University of Pennsylvania engineering students organized in 1940 by Frank N. Piasecki of Philadelphia. The leading members of the group were Piasecki, Venzi and Elliot Daland. The group produced its first prototype, the PV-2, a single-seat helicopter, in the spring of 1943. It was flown publicly on many occasions by Piasecki, the first American to hold a helicopter pilot's license. The group was incorporated in Pennsylvania on January 6, 1943, as the P-V Engineering Forum, taking its name from Piasecki and Venzi. In 1944 the firm secured a contract to design an experimental helicopter for the Navy.

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