History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: A Weird Historical Tidbit

For today’s Fun for Friday, I’m posting something a little different. Despite having studied the Civil War fairly extensively, I never knew that the Confederacy considered attacking the Union using helicopters. Had their plan succeeded, the Civil War could have turned out quite differently, as neither side had a strong air presence. Had one side or the other developed an aircraft suitable for bombing runs, the war might have ended sooner.

As the article notes, the plans for the helicopter would not have actually worked, given the technological constraints of the time. But that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t work in a fictional setting. Having a mid-nineteenth century functional helicopter could have had an impact on all sorts of history. It’s a great “what if” jumping off point for historical fiction!


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