Helicopter Game
 

I used to play a game at The Franklin Instituite in Philadelphia. It involved a helicopter, it was in simple polygonal 3d. You flew the helicopter around a flat map, and if you crashed it told you the exact cost of the damages and what was damaged. I'm not sure if the game had a point.

Isn't the Franklin Institute a museum? You played a game at a museum?

Anyways it does sorta remind me of a game I used to play:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/blitzer

It's an interactive museum, you can do lots of things at it. Also, the game used polygons.

Maybe it's a museum-specific thing? I mean made exclusively for them? Your description doesn't give us much about gameplay, sounds more like simple simulation - esp. that "damage assessment" part.

I don't think it was, I swear it has an author's name right on it. I think it was shareware or something.

Maybe you should get in touch with the institute? Surely someone was responsible for making this game available to visitors, there should be some traces left, such institutions are bureaucratic.

I agree entirely with the poster above :)

just a guess, but maybe it is Sierra's 3D Helicopter Simulator?

If that's not it, it's very similar to that.