The Helicopter Museum
Locking Moor Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS24 8PP, England
www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk
Tel. ++66 (0) 1934-635227

In 2017 I visited the The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset for the second time. The first visit was quite a while in the past, in June 1989. At this time most of the exhibits were in an open storage and not in a proper display.

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 NavyWestland Whirlwind HAS Mk.7 was acquired and added to the collection. 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.

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 HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who arrived in a Wessex HCC.4 of the Queen's Flight. Since then the museum has grown substantially erecting new hangarage to put the collection under cover and purchasing its 4.5 acre site outright, with the help the Heritage Lottery Fund and other grants.

The museum's collection of helicopters now exceeds 80 complete rotorcraft, with others under restoration or only partly complete. 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.

The museum is planning on expanding the site to include the former Weston Airport control tower and a general site redevelopment.