I read today that while most of the world has helicopters where the rotors go counter-clockwise, zee French ones, zhay go, how do you say? clockwise. Why is this?

Well, maybe the Russian ones go clockwise,too.

And then, China and India and Poland do the clockwise thing as well.

So maybe I was a little loose with facts when I said “most of the world”. Hmm . . . Sikorsky was born in Russia of Polish descent and studied aviation in France. The plot, it thickens. So, if Sikorsky of helicopter fame was from Russia and studied in France, isn’t it odd that French and Russian helicopters rotate the reverse of American? Did Sikorsky start out rotating counter-clockwise and someone changed his mind? Did he originally go clockwise and the French and Russians got miffed at his coming to America and just said, “Eh, Eh, Eh, we spit on you and will turn the other way.” Probably not.