Hiller ROE Rotorcycle

The Hiller ROE Rotorcycle was a single-seat ultralight helicopter designed in 1953 for a United States military requirement. In 1954 the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics selected Hiller Helicopters to build its proposed one-man, foldable self-rescue and observation helicopter, which could be carried on a sled-like carrier by two people or air-dropped to pilots trapped behind enemy lines. It had a two-blade rotor and an empty weight of about 290 pounds, and the YROE-1 was powered by a Nelson two-stroke piston engine of 40 horsepower. Two XROE-1 prototypes were built at Hiller in Palo Alto, California, with the first flight in November 1956. The British firm Saunders-Roe then produced ten, five test YROE-1 machines for the US Marine Corps and five for Helicop-Air of Paris. The Marines did not accept it because of low performance, vulnerability to small-arms fire and the lack of visual references for the pilot, and it never saw military service.