Charles L. Morris, a pioneer in helicopter flight, died on Saturday at the Saybrook Convalescent Hospital in Connecticut. He was 82 years old and lived in Old Saybrook.

He died of complications of lung cancer, his family said.

In the 1940's, Mr. Morris was the chief test pilot for helicopters at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn. His work helped in the development of several early models, including two prototypes now at the Smithsonian.

In 1942, he flew one helicopter 761 miles in five days; it might have been a record, but wartime security regulations prohibited official documentation. He appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1943, taught Charles Lindbergh to fly a helicopter and demonstrated helicopter flight to Helen Keller by letting a rope attached to the aircaft rise through her hands as she stood on the ground.

Mr. Morris wrote "Pioneering the Helicopter" (McGraw-Hill, 1945). In an introduction, Igor Sikorsky, the company founder, wrote: "The firsts to his credit are too numerous to list in detail, but they include the first helicopter flight to exceed 100 miles per hour, the first helicopter flight in America to exceed 5,000 feet in altitude, the first helicopter night flights, the first backyard landings and the first actual power-off landings."

He is survived by his wife, Alice Oviatt Morris; two sons, Dr. Charles G., of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Stephen MacKay, of Cambridge, Mass.; a brother, Daniel Luzon, of Seattle, Wash., and two sisters, Martha Cartwright Morris Vaughan, of Damariscotta, Me., and Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris Jackson, of Globe, Ariz.