The Platt-Le Page XR-1 was the first American military helicopter to fly with any success. It was based on the pioneering German Focke-Wulf Fw61 helicopter but was soon superceded by more advanced helicopter designs.

Successful demonstration flights of the Focke-Wulf Fw61 twin rotor helicopter in Germany in the 1930s inspired the United Stated government to fund helicopter research and development.

The Platt-Le Page company had hoped to licence build the Fw61 in the United States but the deteriorating political situation made this impossible so it developed a new helicopter along Focke Wulf lines.

The XR-1 was completed in April 1941 and made its first free flight on 23 June.

However there were many technical problems, some of them overcome in a more advanced XR-1A that flew in October 1943.

However, by this time the Sikorsky R-4 had been ordered into production, and work on the XR-1 continued slowly until the project was cancelled in March 1945.

This model represents the first prototype, c. 1943.

Anigrand 1/72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in October 2010.