At 23, Frank Nicholas Piasecki was a fast-rising genius. The Philadelphia-born son of a Polish immigrant tailor and graduate of New York University's Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, he developed and in 1943 test-flew the second successful helicopter made in the U.S. (Igor Sikorsky flew the first in 1939.) The same year, Piasecki incorporated his own company to build helicopters and landed a Navy contract.
In 1946, when his war baby needed funds to keep going, Laurance Rockefeller and Felix du Pont Jr. quickly came forward, exchanging some $500,000 for 51% of the stock. Flatteringly,...
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