Orlando Heli-Camper

In 1977, Bill McKeown wrote in Popular Mechanics: “No ancient sultan on record thought of stashing a refrigerator, stove, TV, beds and bar aboard his flying carpet… (that had to be) created by Fred Clark of Orlando Helicopter Airways, in Florida.”

Just as now we like the idea of everyone having a helicopter in his or her garage, then the idea of travelling with your own helicopter camper-van had a romantic appeal. In reality, though, it was only a publicity gimmick from Winnebago designed to sell their camper vans.

Fred Clark says: “They were originally built for the Winnebago Corporation and Winnebago used them for publicity and marketing. We later marketed them direct.”

Ironically the marketing worked well for his Sikorsky helicopter sales...