Australia's only homemade, flight-certified helicopter has made its final journey to retire at Newcastle Museum.
Its creator Newcastle man Duan Phillips, died in September last year, aged 94.
He had a vision to use his creation as a prototype to start manufacturing small helicopters in kit or completed form, for farm and recreational use.
Made in Rutherford out of perspex and aluminium and steel bars, the helicopter took its first flight in 1971 and made appearances at many airshows, conducting over 100 hours of flight time.
It was certified by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and was later marketed at the Paris Air Show. However his dream product line never eventuated due to competing designs and deals, and was left in storage at the Royal Newcastle Aero Club in Rutherford.
To carry on his legacy, his loved-ones wanted to donate their family heirloom to a place they knew it would belong.
"It's a huge part of Newcastle and Australia's aviation history," Duan's son, Steve Phillips said.
"This way we get to see it, our kids and their grand kids will get to enjoy it. We know it will be there for 100 years, we just couldn't give it away, he put his heart and soul into it," he said.
Newcastle Museum collections and community partnerships manager David Hampton said accepting the helicopter was a "no-brainer".
"This had such a compelling story, it had such great connections to the local community so we said yes," he said.
"It's always very humbling when a family is willing to part on something that's so significant and so important to them and say it belongs to everyone now."
He said if the aircraft wasn't made by a local man and flown locally, the museum would've suggested to donate it somewhere like the Sydney Powerhouse Museum.
"For us the fact that this is a local story and a powerful story of a guy that just had a passion and saw it through, to realising a thing from a drawing to something that you can actually hop in and fly away - that's what makes this so special for us," he said.
The museum is currently working on an exhibit design and hopes to have the homemade helicopter on display within the next 12 to 18 months.
"Transport enthusiasts are notorious for travelling long distances to see obscure relics of transport histories, so we're hopeful that this, being such a significant object from Australia's aviation history, will have its own little crowd,' Mr Hampton said.
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