Abstract
This paper focuses on the issue of two failed purchases of helicopters from the USA and France.
After 1948, Czechoslovakia began to face towards the USSR, which led to the purchase of the first
Soviet helicopters in 1956, a reality which dominated both the military and civilian sectors until 1990. In addition to the limited development of domestic helicopters, there were attempts to purchase technology from so-called capitalist foreign countries. The first attempt dates back to 1947, when the Bell model 47B helicopter was selected for the National Security Corps. The project was officially halted due to a lack of foreign currency. The second attempt was the purchase of an Aérospatiale Alouette III for the Mountain
Rescue Service in the Tatra Mountains in the second half of the 1960s, an attempt which was thwarted by the events of 1968. This paper will attempt to analyse various aspects of these purchases from a broader historical and technical perspective.