 | |
  Location within Somerset and the United Kingdom | |
| Established | 3 November 1989 |
|---|---|
| Location | Weston-super-Mare, England |
| Coordinates | 51°20′21″N2°55′52″W / 51.3393°N 2.9310°W |
| Director | Lee Mills |
| Website | helimuseum |
The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, is a museum featuring a collection of more than 80 helicopters and autogyros from around the world, both civilian and military. It is based at the southeastern corner of the former Weston-super-Mare RAF Base.
The museum originated in 1958 when its founder, aviation writer and historian Elfan ap Rees, began to build up a private collection of rotorcraft documentation and artefacts. Over the next ten years his collection grew and in 1969 he acquired his first complete helicopter, a Bristol Sycamore Mk.3.
In 1974, ap Rees purchased a Bristol Belvedere and formed a volunteer group to restore it. In December 1976, an ex Royal Navy Westland Whirlwind HAS Mk.7 was acquired and added to the collection. [1] In 1977 and 1978, more aircraft were added, including an ex Royal Air Force Bristol Sycamore HC Mk.14 and several rare prototypes: the Fairey Ultra-Light tip-jet driven helicopter, the Thruxton Gadfly HDW.1 two-seat autogyro and the Campbell Cougar autogyro.
In 1978, the museum acquired a small area and some buildings on Weston-super-Mare airfield, including a Second World War armoury building and air-raid shelter. The buildings required extensive repair work, but by the summer of 1978 the collection was opened to the public, with nine aircraft and a range of other artefacts on display. The museum was forced to close at the end of the 1979 season, but throughout the 1980s, remains from rare helicopters were added to the collection, often preventing them from being scrapped, including the only remaining major parts of the Fairey Rotodyne. Other aircraft acquired in the 1980s included two more variants of the Westland Whirlwind, a Westland Scout AH Mk.1 and a Westland Wessex.
The museum reopened on a new airfield site in 1988 and volunteers spent the next year restoring old buildings and erecting a new display annexe. On 3 November 1989, the museum was officially opened by Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who arrived in a Wessex HC.4 of the Queen's Flight. Since then the museum has grown, erecting new hangarage to put the collection under cover and purchasing its 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) site outright, with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund and other grants.
Throughout its development, the trustees have sourced and acquired many rare aircraft for the collection. By 2012, around 45 helicopters and autogyros in the museum qualified for the highest benchmark status in the National Aviation Heritage Register,[ citation needed ] including a number of sole prototypes and others that were the only examples in the country. The museum continues to restore and display many types of helicopters from various countries and purposes.
The museum's collection of helicopters exceeds 80 complete rotorcraft, with others under restoration or only partly complete. [2] The museum features many foreign helicopters, particularly Soviet-era and Eastern European craft, for example the Kamov Ka-26 Hoodlum and the Mi-24 Hind, and more modern ones such as the EH-101.
In 2008, several parts of the Boeing Vertol XCH-62, prototype of the largest helicopter ever built in the western countries, were sent to the Helicopter Museum to be exhibited there. The XCH-62 was scrapped in 2005 at the United States Army Aviation Museum, where it was previously displayed. More recently the museum has added a Mil Mi-8, a former Italian Guardia di Finanza Agusta A109, an Agusta Bell 206C JetRanger, a Gyrodyne QH-50D, a Super Puma and a Piasecki H-21. The museum also holds two record-breakers: Westland Lynx G-LYNX which has held the absolute helicopter world speed record since 1986, and the first production Aerospatiale Dauphin which holds the Paris-London-Paris city centres speed record. [3]
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The museum site has expanded to include the former RAF Weston-super-Mare control tower and the attached "pilots' building" reopened in 2018, and cleared an area ready for a new services block.
Westland Helicopters was a British aircraft manufacturer. Originally Westland Aircraft, the company focused on helicopters after the Second World War. It was amalgamated with several other British firms in 1960 and 1961.
The Westland Whirlwind helicopter was a British licence-built version of the U.S. Sikorsky S-55/H-19 Chickasaw. It primarily served with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in anti-submarine and search and rescue roles. It was also exported to other countries, and the Whirlwind was succeeded by the turbine powered Westland Wessex which was developed from the H-19/Whirlwind. The helicopter was made in many variants using a variety of radial (piston) and turbine engines.
The Westland Wessex is a British-built turbine-powered development of the Sikorsky H-34. It was developed and produced under licence by Westland Aircraft. One of the main changes from Sikorsky's H-34 was the replacement of the piston-engine powerplant with a turboshaft engine. Early models were powered by a single Napier Gazelle engine, while later builds used a pair of de Havilland Gnome engines.
The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses. A development of the earlier Fairey Jet Gyrodyne, which had established a world helicopter speed record, the Rotodyne featured a tip-jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted Napier Eland turboprops. The rotor was driven for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, as well as low-speed translational flight, but autorotated during cruise flight with all engine power applied to two propellers.
The Bristol Type 171 Sycamore is an early helicopter developed and built by the helicopter division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The name refers to the seeds of the sycamore tree, Acer pseudoplatanus, which fall with a rotating motion. It has the distinction of being the first British helicopter to receive a certificate of airworthiness, as well as being the first British-designed helicopter to be introduced by and to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The Army Flying Museum, previously known as the Museum of Army Flying, is a British military aviation museum about the history of flying in the British Army. It is located beside the Army Air Corps Centre in Middle Wallop, close to Andover in Hampshire, England.
The Bristol Type 192 Belvedere is a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was designed by Raoul Hafner for a variety of transport roles including troop transport, supply dropping and casualty evacuation. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1961 to 1969. The Belvedere was Britain's only tandem rotor helicopter to enter production, and one of the few not built by Piasecki or Boeing.
The Rolls-Royce Gnome is a British turboshaft engine originally developed by the de Havilland Engine Company as a licence-built General Electric T58, an American mid-1950s design. The Gnome came to Rolls-Royce after their takeover of Bristol Siddeley in 1966, Bristol having absorbed de Havilland Engines Limited in 1961.
The Westland WS-51 Dragonfly helicopter was built by Westland Aircraft and was an Anglicised licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-51.
The Fleet Air Arm Museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation. It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships, and paintings and drawings related to naval aviation. It is located on RNAS Yeovilton airfield, and the museum has viewing areas where visitors can watch military aircraft take off and land. At the entrance to the museum are anchors from HMS Ark Royal and HMS Eagle, fleet carriers which served the Royal Navy until the 1970s. It is located 7 miles (11 km) north of Yeovil, and 40 miles (64 km) south of Bristol.
The Alvis Leonides is a British air-cooled nine-cylinder radial aero engine first developed by Alvis Car and Engineering Company in 1936.
The Napier Eland is a British turboshaft or turboprop gas-turbine engine built by Napier & Son in the early 1950s. Production of the Eland ceased in 1961 when the Napier company was taken over by Rolls-Royce.
The Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne is an experimental British rotorcraft that used single lifting rotor and a tractor propeller mounted on the tip of the starboard stub wing to provide both propulsion and anti-torque reaction.
815 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron flying the AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter and is the Navy's front line Wildcat Naval Air Squadron. The squadron is based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset. The squadron is capable of carrying out multiple roles such as: counter-narcotics, anti-piracy, Above Surface Warfare (ASuW), search and rescue, disaster relief and flying and engineering training. In the early 2000s, the Navy said that the squadron was largest helicopter squadron in Europe.
No. 225 Squadron RAF is a former Royal Air Force squadron.
The Australian Fleet Air Arm Museum, formerly known as Australia's Museum of Flight, is a military aerospace museum located at the naval air station HMAS Albatross, near Nowra, New South Wales. The museum was opened in 1990, although efforts to preserve artifacts related to Australia's naval aviation history began in 1974. The museum houses aircraft used throughout the history of the Fleet Air Arm, the naval aviation branch of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), along with other aircraft of relevance to Australia's aviation history, and memorabilia relating to Australian aircraft carriers. The museum includes 34 aircraft and helicopters in its collection. It is open to the public daily, except for major public holidays. The museum building is also home to Albatross Aero Club.
The Flugausstellung Peter Junior, previously the Flugausstellung Hermeskeil, is a private aviation museum in the town of Hermeskeil in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
737 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It was initially active during 1943 as an amphibious Bomber Reconnaissance Training Squadron. Reactivated in 1944 it operated as an ASV Training Unit until 1945. It was active again between 1949 and 1957. From 1959 it was the Anti-Submarine Warfare school at RNAS Portland. It operated Westland Wessex HAS.3 rescue helicopters from their land base at RNAS Portland, Dorset.
