As man approached the 20th Century, the race for the skies captivated the imagination of inventors everywhere and all kinds of bizarre flying machines were conjured up. Included in the mix was a pedal-powered ancestor to the helicopter, patented a decade before the Wright Brothers first conquered the skies.As man approached the 20th Century, the race for the skies captivated the imagination of inventors everywhere and all kinds of bizarre flying machines were conjured up. Included in the mix was a pedal-powered ancestor to the helicopter, patented a decade before the Wright Brothers first conquered the skies.