Friends of The Helicopter Museum

The Robinson R22HP

Robinson R22HP G-OTED / G-BMYR / ZS-HLG, c/n 0209, flew from Denham, Buckinghamshire, into retirement at the Museum on the morning of 28th February 2002. It was handed over to the chairman of Museum trustees, Elfan ap Rees, as an addition to the permanent collection. Built in 1981, G-OTED is the Museum's first representative of the Robinson family of inexpensive, manoeuvrable and stylish light helicopters whose first prototype flew in August 1975 with a market launch four years later in 1979. More than 4000 R22s have been built in total and production continued into 2007 at a rate of around 160 per year. In contrast, 644 of Robinson's top-selling, four-seat, R44 were built in 2007. The two-seat Model R22 has held every world record in its weight class including speed, distance and altitude. Launched in 1981 the R22HP version was fitted with a more powerful 160hp Lycoming O-320-B2C air-cooled 4-cylinder engine giving an improved altitude performance. Only 151 of this HP model were built.  Frank Robinson, who designed and developed the R22 series, provided the financial support and sponsorship which made acquisition by the Museum possible. He said, in 2002, "The UK has been an exceptionally strong market for our products from the beginning and, just last year, it was our largest export destination". In August 2010 Frank Robinson retired as President and Chairman of the Board of his company and was succeeded by his son, Kurt, who had started work with the company in 1987.

G-OTED in the Museum Display Hangar is dwarfed by the giant SA321F Super Frelon F-BMHC/F-OCMF/F-WMHC/F-BTRP standing alongside in Olympic Airways livery.

The 160hp Lycoming O-320-B2C air-cooled 4-cylinder piston engine positioned in its open cowling below and behind G-OTED's cockpit.

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