Education
Oehmichen studied at École Centrale Paris.
Oehmichen studied at École Centrale Paris.
He patented the first electric stroboscope in 1917, building at the same time a camera capable of shooting 1,000 frames per second. His first successful flight with a helicopter took place on 18 February 1921. On 11 November 1922, he first flew "Oehmichen Number.2", an improved helicopter featuring small vertically mounted rotors which rotated in the opposite direction from the large lifting rotors, probably creating the first reliable flying helicopter capable of carrying a person.
This work later led to the development of the tail rotor.
On 14 April 1923, he broke the existing record for helicopter flight with a flight of 360m and 525m a few days later, just before being surpassed by Raúl Pateras Pescara. The same year, he made a flight with two passengers.
In 1931 Oehmichen invented and tested a type of blimp he called the "Hélicostat", controlled by four movable propellers, which could hover, take off, and land without ground crew. Oehmichen was also a biologist and studied insect wing function, especially in dragonflies.
He worked at the Collège de France in Paris for 30 years until his retirement.