Europe was the cradle of rotary aviation. The Breguet Brothers, Paul Cornu, Juan de la Cierva, or companies such as AEG, Flettner and Focke-Achgelis all are remembered to lead the way, the latter provided Germany with the only wartime helicopters in operation outside USA. And for the latter, Sikorski was a Russian emigré. After WW2, many manufacturers would operate, and ultimately merge to form heavyweights such as Aérospatiale in France, Westland in UK, Agusta in Italy, MBB in Germany, now Eurocopter/Airbus Helicopter is the Western Europen giant. Meanwhile with a dynamic drone industry, 3.0 "flying taxi" promised a renewed interest in light rotary aviation for the years to come.
France has been a pioneer of rotorcraft, going back to 1898. Breguet Aviation, Citroën (development and flight tests), Ets. Charles Dechaux, Gaucher Remicopter, Helicopteres Guimbal, Nord Aviation (merged with Sud Aviation 1970 to form SNIAS, later renamed Aérospatiale and or course the latter, merged into European aerospace corporation EADS in 2000 - More on Aérospatiale.
British Helicopters
From Westland to Bristol and Saunders.
The UK had quite a vivid helicopter industry, started by autogyros with Cierva Autogiro Company in the interwar, and post-war with manufacturers such as Airmaster Helicopters, Bristol Aeroplane Company (now BAE), Fairey Aviation (acquired by Westland in 1960), Firth Helicopters, Gadfly Aircraft (defunct), Saro (merged with Westland, later Agusta-Westland), Thruxton Aviation, Wallis Autogyros, Westland Aircraft (merged with Bristol, Fairey and Saunders-Roe: Westland Helicopters in 1961), and now AgustaWestland.
German helicopters
From Flettner to MBB and Eurocopter.
Germany was part of the pioneers with AEG, Flettner and Focke-Achgelis (WW2), Bölkow (merged with Messerschmitt AG to form Messerschmitt-Bölkow and later Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm or MBB) and now part of the galaxy Airbus Helicopter, Dornier Flugzeugwerke, Youngcopter (kit) and many new 3.0 drone and utralight projects such as the Volocopter. More on MBB.
Italian Helicopters
The Agusta saga and many more...
Italy started developing helicopters in the 1950s and still had a dynamic helicopter industry today. Manufacturers such as Aero Eli Servizi Costruzioni Aeronautiche, the heavyweight Agusta Westland, Elicotteri Meridionali (now called the Sesto Calende (VA)) at Agusta, Alpi Aviation, DF Helicopters Srl, Fiat Aviazione (which in 1969, merged with Aerfer to create Aeritalia), Heli-Sport, Konner Srl, Partenavia (bankrupt and puchased by Vulcanair), Piaggio Aero, Silvercraft (defunct 1970s) - More on Agusta Westland.
Spanish helicopters.
The Cierva legend
Juan de la Cierva "the flying count", was a brillant pioneer of the helicopter, through its parallel development, the autogyro. Spain even had the first naval helicopter carrier in service anywhere, called the Dédalo. Spanish autogyro But many other manufacturers in the country participated in Helicopter manufacturers, notably Aerotécnica, AISA (Aeronáutica Industrial S.A.) part of CASA, ELA Aviación and of course Eurocopter España – located in Madrid and Albacete.
Other European helicopters
Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and eastern Europe...
Swedish Saab Skeldar drone, Dynali (Belgium), Soko (Yugoslavia), Aero Vodochody, Moravan (Czech R.), VFW-Fokker (Nethrlands), PZL-Świdnik WSK (Poland), IAR (Romania), EDePro (Serbia), Berger-Helicopter, Marenco Swisshelicopter, SKT Helicopter (Switzerland) - More