Helio Aircraft Company
The Koppen-Bollinger Aircraft Corporation was founded by Otto Koppen and Lynn Bollinger in Massachusetts in 1948 to develop a light STOL utility aircraft. It was renamed the Helio Aircraft Corporation by the time manufacture of the Helio Courier, commenced in the early 1950s at a plant in Pittsburg, Kansas.
The business was bought by the General Aircraft Corporation in 1969, was renamed Helio Aircraft Company and continued production until 1974, when General Aircraft commenced legal proceedings against the CIA, alleging that the agency had planned to ruin the business through organizing unlicensed production of the Courier. During the 1970s, the rights changed hands several times before being purchased by Helio Aircraft Ltd, which returned the Courier to production in the 1980s, but only built 18 aircraft.
The rights to the Courier and Stallion were bought and sold a number of times more before being purchased by Helio Aircraft LLC of Prescott, Arizona, which announced plans in 2004 to return both types to production.
Aircraft
References
- Gunston, Bill (1993). World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
- Simpson, R. W. (1995). Airlife's General Aviation. Shrewsbury: Airlife Publishing.
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