Classic Rotors is a flying aviation museum

Aviation museum

An aviation museum, air museum or aerospace museum is a museum exhibiting the history and artifacts of aviation. In addition to actual or replica aircraft, exhibits can include photographs, maps, models, dioramas, clothing and equipment used by aviators.Aviation museums vary in size from housing...

 specializing in helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

s and other rotorcraft

Rotorcraft

A rotorcraft or rotary wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine that uses lift generated by wings, called rotor blades, that revolve around a mast. Several rotor blades mounted to a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The International Civil Aviation Organization defines a rotorcraft...

, located at the Ramona Airport

Ramona Airport

Ramona Airport is a public airport located two miles west of the central business district of Ramona, in San Diego County, California, United States...

 in Ramona, California

Ramona, California

Ramona is a census-designated place in San Diego County, California. The population was 20,292 at the 2010 census.The term Ramona also refers to an unincorporated community that includes both the Ramona CDP and the adjacent CDP of San Diego Country Estates CDP...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The museum bills itself as "the rare and vintage rotorcraft museum" and claims to be one of the "three dedicated rotorcraft museums in the world".

History

The museum was founded in 1992 by Mark DiCiero after he built and learned to fly his own helicopter. The museum is a non-profit and all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff. The museum currently has five helicopters in flying condition, which are flown in air displays.

The museum describes its mission as being:

Aircraft

The museum collection includes:
Airworthy

• Hiller UH-12
• Kamov Ka-26 - registered N4106H it was built in 1976
• Piasecki H-21B - registered N64606, it is the only H-21 still flying today. Built in 1957, the helicopter was obtained by Classic Rotors on January 23, 1990 and restored to flying condition. In 2008 it had an engine failure resulting in an emergency landing in a field at a dairy farm in San Pasqual Valley in California. It was returned to the museum and repaired to flying condition again in October 2009. The cause of the engine failure was a spring on the piston that broke.
• Sikorsky H-19

On display

• Aerospatiale SA 341
• Brantly 305
  Brantly 305
  -References:*Taylor, John W.R.. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976-77. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1976. ISBN 0-354-00538-3.* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft , 1985, Orbis Publishing.-External links:*...
  
  
• Hiller Hornet
• Jovair YH-30
  McCulloch H-30
  |-References:* John Andrade, U.S.Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909, Midland Counties Publications, 1979, ISBN 0 904597 22 9 * The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft , 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 2213/2214....
  
  
• MonteCopter 15 Tri-phibian
• Piasecki HUP-1 Retriever
• Rotorway 133 Scorpion
• Rotary Rocket ROTON
  Rotary Rocket
  Rotary Rocket, Inc, was a rocketry company headquartered in a facility at Mojave Airport that developed the Roton concept in the late 1990s as a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit manned spacecraft. Roton was intended to reduce costs of launching payloads into low earth orbit by a factor of...
  
  
• Sikorsky H03S
  Sikorsky H-5
  The Sikorsky H-5, is a helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, formerly used by the United States Air Force, and its predecessor, the United States Army Air Forces, as well as the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard The Sikorsky H-5, (aka R-5, S-51, HO3S-1, or Horse) (R-5...
  
  

Under restoration:

• Hiller UH-12
• Kaman HOK
• Piasecki HUP-3
• Sikorsky H-19 - Restoration almost completed in November 2009

Other

• Vertol V-44B - Once obtained by the museum, it will be restored to flying condition.
• Piasecki HUP-1 - Was the only HUP-1 still flying, until it was crashed in November 2009