Odd floppy drives (Helitron)

[Tom Jennings]

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:

> Alan Shugart is regarded as the inventor of the "floppy" disk in 1971 at
> IBM.  So unless Al comes forward with a confession, this guy's story will
> need a lot more details than just off-hand ramblings.
>
> I've seen this kind of thing a lot: one person claims that they invented
> somesuch and that some company came by, checked it out, wished them well,
> then went off and stole the technology.

I tried to present the story only as my personal experience of
visiting Helitron, Inc around 1980, what I saw, and no more. I
don't support or deny the man's claims, as I have no further facts
than what I presented.

It's entirely possible he got ripped off, or he's nuts, both, or
neither, or got burned in a deal, or made unreasonable demands, or
it wasn't unique enough, ad nauseum. We'll likely never know
unless someone decides it's worth chasing it all down. That
someone is not me!