Friends of the Helicopter Museum

This unmanned, radio-controlled, surveillance and anti-submarine helicopter, with coaxial, contra-rotating rotors, built in mid-1966, was one of more than 800 produced, in different versions, by the Gyrodyne Company in St.James, Long Island, New York.

DS-1482 was assigned to the United States Navy and went to sea on a WW2 destroyer which had been modernised to provide improved sonar, a small flight deck and a hangar for two drones. Transferred to the US Army in 1974 it was eventually acquired by a private individual for his collection. Years later it was spotted near Bakersfield, California, and subsequent negotiation resulted in it being sold to The Helicopter Museum in 2013.

This and other production examples of the QH-50D were powered by one 365 shp (272 kW) Boeing T50-BO-12 turboshaft engine, built in Seattle.
DS-1482 was photographed (left) in the Museum's conservation hangar two days after arrival. It has since been cleaned of Mojave Desert sand and fully assembled before being placed on public display on 28th March 2015.