Hobby Copter

Country of origin: USA
Built: Assembled in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, UK, 1958
Manufacturer: Adams-Wilson Company, Maryland USA
Engine: One 50hp Kawasaki motor cycle engine

Type: Single seat helicopter

Note: Single seat kit built helicopter one of the only two known to have been imported and assembled in the UK.

Details: The Adams Wilson company was formed by T.G Adams and Paul Wilson in Maryland, in the United States to market plans for a single- seat kit build helicopter. The prototype first flew as the XH-1 Hobbycopter in November 1958, powered by a 34hp Triumph motorcycle engine. Sales of the plans for $35.00, or for $900 including some key components, began for amateur construction that year.

Subsequently the design was revised and a number of variants produced over the years, including the Showers Skytwister and the Vortech A/W95 which continued to market the plans, together with rotor blades, rotor heads and other key components. Sales were mostly in North America but the exact number that were actually built and flown is not known, as many were never completed and none were ever listed on the official registers.

This example is one of the only two known to have been imported and assembled in the UK. It was originally purchased by J & C Motor Spares in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey but apparently never flown, instead serving as a publicity display at the company's premises. It disappeared from show circa August 2017 but in August 2021 sold on Ebay to Grahame Cox in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. He moved it from storage in West Sussex, and planned to restore it to flying condition, but it was missing its rotor blades and main rotor head, and so was stored in a barn near East Huntspill with other items in his collection as a future project.

Grahame Cox died on 3 September 2022 but in his will he donated the aircraft to the Helicopter Museum. Following extraction from the barn, ownership was transferred to the museum in February 2024 and this rare helicopter collected by volunteers on 4 April. It has undergone careful restoration before going on permanent display.