History:

The Hummingbird was a kit-built helicopter produced by Vertical Aviation Technologies of Sanford, Florida.  It was of light-weight construction and designed for the amateur builder who desired a four-seat light helicopter.  Based around the drawings and engineering reports of the Sikorsky S-52-3 helicopter of the 1950s, it received a lot of re-design, consisting of a new nose, a new power-plant, fairings and cowlings, improved vertical / horizontal stabiliser position and design, electric cyclic trim, instrument panel, strengthened main rotor blades, hydraulic fan drive and dual ignition.  It had a fully articulated rotor head, a flight control trim system, was of all aluminium construction with a fibreglass nose, had a rotor brake and wheels for taxiing with hydraulic brakes and shock absorbing struts.  The main rotor blades could be quickly removed for maintenance, trailer transport, or storage.

When first produced in the early 1990s it was fitted with a 194 kw (260 hp) Aluminium V-8 engine but in more recent times the engine normally installed was the 194 kw (260 hp) Lycoming VO-435-A1F, but the 209 kw (280 hp) turbo-charged variant of this unit was also available for use in hot and high conditions.  The prototype of a new variant known as the 260L was first flown in 2001 and was shown at the Sun ‘N Fun Air Show in Florida in April 2002.  In 2004 a new long-range fuel system was made available as an option.  Normal fuel capacity was 216 litres (47.4 Imp gals).  Undercarriage was a quadricycle unit.

Manufactured by Vertical Aviation Technologies Inc of Sanford, Florida in the USA, which had its offices at the Orlando Sanford Airport, the Company has been engaged in the manufacturing, sales, modification and overhaul of helicopters worldwide of various sizes, ranging from the Hummingbird to the 16-seat Sikorsky S-58T turbine-powered machine.

The Hummingbird in 2005 became available via the Australasian distributor, Hummingbird Helicopters Australasia, the first helicopter arriving in the middle of that year and being assembled at Cessnock, NSW.  It was later taken to Queensland where it became VH-NOS (c/n S001) on 27 May 2008.  This was followed by the first machine registered in New Zealand, this being a 260L for Johnson Aviation of Queenstown which in, July 2008, became ZK-IBU (c/n 727).  In late 2008 a further aircraft became VH-JIC (c/n 625) in Sydney, NSW followed by VH-MPB (c/n 730) on 13 December 2011 to Taitfam of Bathurst West, NSW, and VH-XKR (c/n 624) to its owner at Castlecove, NSW in July 2013.