 This was a relatively simple requirement, involving a neatly defined mission in a combat environment where presumably nobody would usually be shooting back at the drone, and it seemed achievable with the technology of the time.Gyrodyne Company of Long Island, New York, was awarded the contract to build DASH, and based the design on a one-man helicopter the company had already developed, the "YRON-1".The initial DASH demonstration prototype, designated the "DSN-1", used a Porsche flat-four piston engine with , with nine such prototypes built.