The Canadian Air & Space Museum of Toronto has launched a fundraising drive to acquire a Sikorsky S-58T with almost half a century of service in the U.S. and Canada under its rotors. The museum has set an initial fundraising goal of $35,000 to acquire the helicopter and all associated spare parts and finance its transport to the museum. At the time the helicopter was manufactured in 1961, the S-58 was the largest civilian helicopter in service in the world.

Representatives of the museum are at Heli-Expo seeking support for their mission. The museum is also planning to stage a fundraising helicopter fly-in at Toronto’s Downsview Airport in late May.

“The contributions of the helicopter and the helicopter industry have touched many lives,” said Kenneth Swartz, vice chairman of the museum. “Unfortunately, when we started looking for historic airframes, we discovered that all the other original heavy-lift helicopters used across the Canadian north between 1950 and 1970 have been either wrecked or scrapped.”

A Web site (www.aeromedicommunications.com/Aeromedia/S-58_Fundraiser.html)
describes both the history of the aircraft and the museum’s fundraising objectives.