Hiller
OH-23C
Photo: Robert Deering 1969

Idlewild AAF (A805)
Taegu, Korea
Hiller Aircraft Company is a small private aerospace company, based in Firebaugh, California, with subsidiary operations in China. It was founded in 1942 as Hiller Industries by Stanley Hiller to develop helicopters.
PHOTOS        
Military Aircraft        

OH-23
Raven

XH-44
Hiller-copter

XHOE
Hornet
   

HISTORY

Stanley Hiller, then seventeen, established the first helicopter factory on the West Coast of the United States, located in Berkeley, California, in 1942, under the name "Hiller Industries," to develop his design for the coaxial-rotor XH-44 "Hiller-Copter" for the U.S. Army. The XH-44 became operational in 1944.  In collaboration with Henry J. Kaiser, it became United Helicopters in 1945. In the postwar years, United Helicopter produced a number of innovative helicopter designs for military and civilian purposes, including coaxial-rotor and tailless designs, as well as more conventional models. In January, 1949, a Hiller-360 became the first civilian helicopter to cross the United States.

Besides helicopters, in the year after World War II, Stanley Hiller researched a two man rocket-jet aircraft design that took off and landed vertically, called the VJ-100, in which he tried unsuccessfully to interest the U.S. military.

The company was renamed Hiller Helicopters in 1948. It was involved in the development of a number of prototype helicopters. From the early 1960s to 1969, its Palo Alto plant served as a CIA cover for the production of the CORONA reconnaissance satellites.

Hiller was purchased by Fairchild Aircraft in 1964.

Jeff Hiller, the son of Stanley Hiller, repurchased the company in 1994 with the help of a dozen Thai investors led by Patrick C. Lim, part owner of Siam Steel and many other Asian ventures. For ownership of Hiller aircraft, these investors helped cover the company's liabilities about $1 million and commit about $10 million to build at least 30 new helicopters at the new East Bay production site and also setting up the first aerospace company in Thailand.

Stanley Hiller donated money and a number of aircraft to form the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California, which opened in 1998.

In 2009, the Hiller (China) Aircraft Manufacturing Company  began construction of a production facility in Zhangjiakou City, northwest of Beijing. The company is a joint venture between Hiller Aircraft Corporation, Zhangjiakou Chahar General Aviation Company. At the time, Zhangjiakou Chahar General Aviation was already carrying out low-rate production of UH-12 parts and sub assemblies.

Source: Wikipedia

AIRCRAFT    
         
Hiller XH-44 Hiller-copter   1944    
Hiller VJ-100        
Hiller Autogyro        
Hiller X-2-235        
Hiller J-5        
Hiller UH-4 Commuter        
Hiller UH-5 Rotormatic        
Hiller UH-12 / H-23 Raven   1948   Single piston-engine observation helicopter
Hiller HH-120 Hornet        
Hiller HJ-1        
Hiller VXT-8       Coleopter
Hiller YH-32 / XHOE Hornet   1950   Tip Ramjet engine helicopter
Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee   1955   "Flying platform"
Hiller 1098 STORC       Tip turbojet convertible plane/helicopter
Hiller 1123       Tip turbojet cargo helicopter designed for US Army's Transportation Research and Engineering Command (TRECOM)
Hiller Air Tug       Tip turbojet super heavy lift helicopter for mid air Saturn S-IC Booster recovery
Hiller ROE-1 Rotorcycle   1956   Ultralight piston-engine helicopter
Hiller X-18   1959   Experimental twin engine tiltwing
Hiller Ten99   1961   Single turbine engine helicopter
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100   1963   Single turbine engine helicopter
Fairchild Hiller FH-227   1966   Twin-engine turboprop commercial airliner