On 9 April 1959, the 269 received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Hughes continued to concentrate on civil production.
Hughes had successfully captured a large portion of the civilian helicopter market[2] with an aircraft that would prove popular in agriculture, police work and other duties.
[6] In 2018 the type certificate for the 269/300 product line was sold by Sikorsky to Schweizer RSG in Fort Worth Texas.
The new company, affiliated with Rotorcraft Services Group, will support the existing fleet and will start to build new aircraft at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, Texas.
The management team includes industry and product veterans such as David Horton and Mike Iven.
[7] Between Hughes and Schweizer, and including foreign-licensed production civil and military training aircraft, nearly 3,000 units of the Model 269/300 have been built and flown over the last 50 years.
In recent years the cockpit received an upgrade when an STC was developed for the installation of the Garmin G500H helicopter dual-screen electronic flight display, as well as the Mid-Continent MD302 Standby Attitude Indicator.
For three-seat aircraft, the middle collective control stick is removable and a seat cushion can be put in its place for the third passenger.