In 1985, Stulen and Parsons were jointly awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan for "Revolutioniz[ing] Production Of Cars And Airplanes With Numerical Controls For Machines".
In 1942, Parsons was told that helicopters were going to be the "next big thing" by the former head of Ford Trimotor production, Bill Stout.
He called Sikorsky Aircraft to inquire about possible work, and soon got a contract to build the wooden stringers in the rotor blades.
At the time, rotor blades were built in the same fashion that fixed wings were, consisting of a long tubular steel spar with stringers (or more accurately ribs) set on them to provide the aerodynamic shape that was then covered with a stressed skin.
The stringers for the rotors were built from a design provided by Sikorsky, which was sent to Parsons as a series of 17 points defining the outline.
Looking for ideas, Parsons visited Wright Field to see Stulen, the head of the Propeller Lab Rotary Wing Branch.
The Parsons-Stulen building, home of the Northwestern Michigan College Aviation Campus at Cherry Capital Airport, is named after Parsons and Stulen.