Robinson's $1 Million Ensures Helicopters in Smithsonian

Robinson Helicopter Company recently contributed $1 million to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's new facility currently under construction at the Dulles Airport. The purpose of the funding is to assure that the new center will include a section devoted specifically to rotary wing aircraft.

The museum's original building on the National Mall previously included a vertical flight gallery until 1995, when it was replaced by the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. The Enola Gay exhibition closed in 1998 but the vertical flight artifacts were not returned, much to the disappointment of many in the helicopter industry.

The Smithsonian has committed the new facility to having a rotary wing exhibit which now also will include two Robinson helicopters for at least twenty years. The first R44 displayed likely will be the red helicopter flown by Jennifer Murray on both of her round-the-world flights.