Omega BS-12 in slow speed forward flight with test pilot Robert Nields at the controls. Cargo hold is off of cabin beneath high-positioned engines. Cargo carried in pod or net.
09/30/2011. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Bernard W. Sznycer and Selma Gottlieb had developed the SG-VI-D which did not go into production and Sznycer started a new company in the USA, Omega Aircraft Corporation at New Bedford, Massachusetts, to develop and build the BS-12 utility helicopter. This had a flying crane layout, with a forward four-seat crew pod and an open tubular rear fuselage and fixed tricycle landing gear. A metal cargo box could be suspended beneath the fuselage mid-section.
The BS-12 used two 210 hp Franklin engines positioned end-to-end above the rear fuselage. Registered N267B the prototype flew on October 29, 1956, and was followed by a revised version, the BS-12B (N290B c/n 1001).
The Omega company eventually became a division of Allied Aero Industries, while the design was progressively upgraded with detail design changes, notably to the cabin pod and to the engines. The BS-12D-1 (N285B c/n 1002) had two 260 hp Lycoming O-540 engines and a five-seat cabin.
The second BS-12D-1 (N286B c/n 1003) was fitted with supercharged 225 hp Franklin 6AS-335 engines and redesignated BS-12D-3. In 1960, the investors backing the Omega designs withdrew support and further development was terminated, although the BS-12 gained its Type Certificate in April 1961."