The Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum shows off their latest acquisition (QH-50 DASH)

Horsham, PA — The Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum recently held their Open House event and also unveiled their latest acquisition the Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter). The museum recently acquired the aircraft as loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum. In addition, some of the shipboard control panels are on loan for the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester PA. 

 

Think drones are new? Think again. The Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH was a small, drone helicopter first built in 1962 built by Gyrodyne Company of America for use as a long-range anti-submarine weapon on ships that would otherwise be too small to operate a full-sized helicopter. It remained in production until 1969. Several are still used today for various land-based roles.

 

DASH’s control scheme had two controllers, one on the flight deck, and another in the combat information center. The flight-deck controller would handle take-off and landing. The controller in the Combat Information Center (CIC) would fly DASH to the target’s location and release weapons using semiautomated controls and radar.

 

The CIC controller could not see the aircraft or its altitude and occasionally lost operational control or situational awareness. Late in the program, there were successful experiments to add a television camera to the drone. These DASH SNOOPYs were also used as airborne spotters for naval gunfire.

 

A tethered landing system was developed to land and take off in up to Force-6 seas. This system consisted of steel rails which were screwed to the flight deck and a cable system to pull the helicopter out of the hangar bay. The helicopter was attached to the steel rails so that it would not slide off the flight deck in heavy seas. This system was occasionally set up and used aboard ship, but never used in rough seas to launch a helicopter.