For a glimpse of "yesterday's tomorrow, today," the Modern Mechanix Blog brings us the story of helicopter innovator and teenager Stanley Hiller Jr., who took Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings and created the dual-axial aircraft the artist had dreamed of and everyone else claimed was impossible.

The blog reprints the Mechanix Illustrated's 1944 article "The Kid With The Kaiser Contract" by Dean Jennings - including graphics of the original magazine pages - telling the story of how Hiller went from a curious boy building model cars to an Army contract to design and build his helicopters.

The language of the article has the humorously exuberant optimism not seen since the Sixties, but it's a great look back at the rise of aviation. Here are some excerpts:

In the world of science and aviation, the Hillercopter, as he has quaintly named the ship, has the old-timers clucking like old ladies at a parish tea. In the first place, it couldn't be done-and he did it. In the second place, here is a helicopter anyone can learn to fly in less than two hours, that can be mass produced for something under $2,000, that weighs less than 1,400 pounds fully loaded with pilot and gas, and that can be run into an ordinary garage. If that isn't enough, it has no more vibration than a kitchen refrigerator, gets 20 miles to the gallon, and is almost as safe as the gold at Fort Knox. In fact, Stanley has flown it with both hands outside the cockpit, a miracle that makes veteran helicopter pilots twist their beards and send put for another bottle of sedatives. But more of this in a moment ...

Starting from scratch, and with the aid of material obtained through WPB priorities, Stanley and a small staff of assistants began building the plane. In May, 1944, the last daub of yellow paint was applied to the trim fuselage, and he trucked the finished helicopter to the backyard of the Hiller home at the foot of the Berkeley hills.

The following morning, anchoring the plane to his car as a precautionary measure, the young inventor started the motor, climbed into the cockpit and made what will some day appear in the history books as an epochal flight. He laughs about it now, because it wasn't much of a debut. Held down by the cable and with the 25-foot rotors swishing around in a space only 30 feet wide, the Hillercopter hopped around like a chicken with a game leg ...

For peacetime (Hiller) envisions a two-seater, or maybe even a fourseater - a family model, if you will-that most people can afford and anyone can fly. The ship can land on a dime, or at least a silver dollar, coming straight down on its three-wheeled landing gear. And with a slight horizontal roof extension and little expense, most garages could be altered to handle the long rotors when they are lined up parallel to each other. The ship has a flight ceiling now of about 6,000 feet, but Stanley says the best cruising height, except over cities, is from 300 to 500 feet. He can take my order right now, if he wants.

After you read this article, peruse the archives. This blog is a perfectly preserved time capsule that shouldn't be missed.