It later was redesigned for a U.S. Marine Corps requirement for a small personal helicopter that would fulfill an array of roles, including observation, liaison, small unit tactical maneuvers, and which could be dropped to downed airmen behind enemy lines to facilitate their escape.

Gyrodyne's design was an open-framework helicopter with coaxial rotors, which was evaluated with three different power plants (two reciprocating, one turbine).

[5] The Marine Corps eventually concluded that both the RON, and the competing Hiller ROE were too heavy and too difficult to fly and abandoned the project.

The United States Navy, however, had noticed the compact size and high load-carrying capacity of the RON, and in 1960 awarded a contract to Gyrodyne to produce a radio-controlled drone version of the Rotorcycle, to be used as an Anti-Submarine Warfare platform.

The Rotorcycle went on to win the prize for most maneuverable helicopter at the Paris Air Show in 1961, and was selected for a 1964 trade fair in Morocco by the United States Department of Commerce.