Museum pays homage to 'rotorcraft'

By: JESSICA MUSICAR - For the North County Times | Friday, July 8, 2005 12:15 AM PDT ∞

RAMONA ---- From Leonardo da Vinci to the Wright Brothers, history is filled with people who have looked to the skies and dreamed of soaring.

At the Classic Rotors Museum in Ramona, one era in the quest to reach the clouds is preserved inside a cavernous hangar at the Ramona Airport, where rare and vintage helicopters and other 'rotorcraft' fill the room. For the volunteers who operate the museum, the obsession with flight is alive and well.

Rotorcraft can be any flying vehicle that uses a series of blades to achieve flight vertically, said Terry Robinson, the program director of Classic Rotors.

"There are a number of rotorcrafts that are not helicopters, but all helicopters are rotorcrafts," Robinson explained.

Robinson said there are four museums in the world dedicated to helicopters and his is the only one that restores the crafts to flight condition. About half of the aircraft can still fly, and many are one-of-a kind. The museum is run entirely by volunteers and carries about 38 rotorcraft.

"Part of what we are trying to do is preserve history," Robinson said. "Many of these, being the only ones (of their kind) in existence, would probably be scrapped if we weren't here to preserve them."

The moneymaker for the museum is the H21B, a craft that was used by the Army and Navy for search and rescue. The one at the museum is the only flyable H21B in the world, Robinson said. Known as the "Flying Banana," as well as the "Work Horse" by the Navy and the "Shawnee" by the Army, the H21B model was the first U.S. helicopter to serve in the Vietnam War, Robinson said.

Considered to be the grandfather of the "Chinook," a helicopter still in use, the H21B was put out of commission when it became obsolete in the 1970s.

Robinson said volunteers fly the Work Horse to various air shows, where visitors can board the craft and view its insides for $1. He said this is the only money the museum takes in. Recently featured at the Ramona Air Show, the Work Horse has also made appearances in San Carlos, near San Francisco, for the Hiller Aviation Museum's annual Vertical Challenge helicopter show.

Robinson emphasized that Classic Rotors is not a military museum, although many of its crafts were used by one or more branches of the military.

Other rare crafts in the museum include a 1953 French Djinn, a helicopter that used compressed air that blew out of its blade tips to achieve flight, and a Doman LZ-5, a helicopter from the 1950s. Because of its extreme stability, the craft could fly for 40 minutes without a pilot's direct control.

Only two Doman LZ-5s were ever made, and both were sold to the Army for VIP transport in Washington, D.C. However, the LZ-5 never became popular with the military, and the museum's model is the only one in existence.

"They all have their own uniqueness here," Robinson said.

Robinson said that in the 1950s, when the Doman came out, the Army was often flooded with requests from aircraft manufacturers to purchase their wares, and many crafts didn't make the cut.

"This could have been the best in the world, but if the Army didn't have a need for it, they couldn't justify buying it," Robinson said.

On a visit to the museum Thursday to discuss trading turbine engines, Mike and Joan Sprouse ---- the owners of Turbines by Gateway Inc., in Mohave Valley, Ariz. ---- said the museum has an interesting stock of aircraft.

"It's a good helicopter museum because most of (the) units are flyable," Mike Sprouse said. "Aviation history is a big part of our country and the world."

In addition to being a museum, Classic Rotors is a nonprofit organization with volunteers nationwide who are dedicated to preserving and restoring rotorcraft. The organization operates the museum and three restoration/storage hangars at the Ramona Airport. It also recently opened its main restoration facility near Victorville.

Robinson said Classic Rotors was founded in 1993 by Mark Di Ciero, director of operations. The museum started as several hangars spread across the Ramona Airport, and in late 2003, the organization gained funding to purchase its current location.

The museum is open by appointment and Saturdays. For information, call (760) 803-0244 or visit www.rotors.org.