Vertiflite Before Vertiflite: VFS Membership News 1943 to 1953

The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) was founded as the American Helicopter Society, Incorporated (AHS) in 1943. During the first decade, several means were used to communicate Society news and industry news to its members. Until 1952, the management of the Society was primarily through elected volunteers, and executives from the leading helicopter companies typically served as the AHS president. Letters to the Society's members were typed and mailed by the companies to the few hundred early members. In 1950, AHS also partnered with the broader aviation professional society, the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS), to typeset and publish a column on Society news in its membership magazine and which was then mailed to AHS members. It wasn't until 1953 that the first regular publication, the monthly "NEWS LETTER" was sent to members. This newsletter continued to increase in its length and depth of industry news -- it was renamed Vertiflite in 1963. Although some of this was covered in previous histories of VFS, this paper publishes the details of this period for the first time.