The winner of a United States Army Air Corps design competition held in early 1940, the XR-1 was the first helicopter tested by the USAAF, flying in 1941.

[3] Platt-LePage's submission was judged by the Army to be superior to its competitors, which included a helicopter submitted by Vought-Sikorsky, and autogyros developed by Kellett and Pitcairn.

[4] In its design, the XR-1 bore a strong resemblance to the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, a helicopter developed by Henrich Focke in Germany that, flown by Hanna Reitsch, had impressed Platt-LePage co-founder Wynn LePage during a tour of Europe.

[1] During the development of the aircraft, Major General Robert M. Danford proposed to the War Department that the XR-1 be evaluated against the Stinson YO-54 and the Kellett YG-1B autogyro.

[8] In addition, the company's test pilot, Lou Leavitt, lacked confidence in the design, refusing to fly the aircraft to its full potential.

[8] In July 1943, the XR-1 program suffered a setback when the aircraft crashed, seriously injuring test pilot Jim Ray, who had replaced Leavitt following the latter's dismissal from the company.

[6] The crash was caused by an inspector's error in leaving a suspect part on the aircraft, the rotor hub failing in flight as a result of the decision.

[6] Following a cross-country flight to Wright Field in Ohio from Platt-LePage's Pennsylvania plant, testing of the XR-1A continued until a mechanical failure in the rotor hub led to a crash landing[6] on 26 October 1944,[8] the company deciding to sell the wreckage for scrap.

[8] In addition, even the XR-1A's improvements had failed to cure the aircraft of all of its control and vibration problems,[6] and the AAF's Air Materiel Command considered the company "inept" in its work, applying a "hit-or-miss method" to research and development.

[10] The projected boom failed to materialise, however, and HAT quickly entered bankruptcy, selling the XR-1A to Frank Piasecki, another former Platt-LePage employee who had now started his own helicopter company.