bamboo-copter

thumb|250px|Modern Japanese taketombo bamboo-copters; wooden type with winding thread (left); plastic type (right) thumb|250px|A decorated Japanese taketombo propeller The bamboo-copter, also known as the bamboo dragonfly or Chinese top (Chinese zhuqingting (竹蜻蜓), Japanese taketonbo ), is a toy helicopter rotor that flies upward when its shaft is rapidly spun. This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 AD, and was the object of early experiments by English engineer George Cayley, the inventor of modern aeronautics.

==History== In China, the earliest known flying toys consisted of feathers at the end of a stick, which was rapidly spun between the hands and released into flight. "While the Chinese top was no more than a toy, it is perhaps the first tangible device of what we may understand as a helicopter."