[2] Sergeant Major Werner Noltemeyer gathered parts, models, books and photographs of rotary-wing aircraft while he was training to become a helicopter pilot in the German Army Aviation Corps.

In the late 1960s, the city council of Bückeburg offered Noltemeyer an old timbered-framed building for use as a museum which opened in 1971.

[3] Due to a shortage of space an additional exhibition hall was added in 1980.

The Hubschrauberzentrum e. V. (Helicopter Centre Association) - founded in 1970 - is an organisation of volunteers that operates and maintains the museum.

The association maintains an extensive archive and a library for scientific study of the history of rotorcraft.