The Helicopter Museum ( Weston ) The Helicopter Museum in Weston - super - Mare , North Somerset , England , is a museum featuring a collection of more than 80 helicopter s and autogyro s from around the world , both civilian and military . It is based on the south - eastern corner of the former Weston - super - Mare Airport . History . 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 Navy Westland 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 . In 1978 , the museum acquired a small area and some buildings on Weston - super - Mare airfield , including a Second World War armoury building and air - raid shelter . The buildings required extensive repair work , but by the summer of 1978 the collection was opened to the public , with nine aircraft and a range of other artefacts on display . 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 HC . 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 of heritage lottery and other grant funding . Throughout its development the trustees have been led by Elfan Ap Rees , who has also been responsible for sourcing snd acquiring many rare aircraft for the collection . By 2012 some 45 helicopters and autogyros in the museum qualified for the highest benchmark status in the National Aviation Heritage Register including a number of sole protoypes and others that were the only examples in the country . The museum continues to restore and display many types of helicopters from various countries and purposes . Museum collection . 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 . In 2008 , several parts of the XCH - 62 , prototype of the largest helicopter ever built in the western countries , were sent to the Helicopter Museum to be exhibited there . The XCH - 62 was scrapped in 2005 at the United States Army Aviation Museum , where it was previously displayed . More recently the museum has added a Mil Mi - 8 , a former Italian Guardia di Finanza Agusta A109 , an Agusta Bell 206C JetRanger and a Gyrodyne QH - 50D . The museum also holds two record breakers in the collection , Westland Lynx G - LYNX which has held the absolute helicopter world speed record since 1986 and the first production Aerospatiale Dauphin which holds the Paris - Lodon - Paris city centres speed record .