The Heliotron E device is characterized by a large aspect ratio, , large rotational transform, and , high shear, , an and M = 19 helical coil, two vertical field coils and 19 toroidal coils (19 toroidal coils were removed to increase neutral beam injection (NBI) heating power up to 4 MW in 1985), where is the rotational transform, is the average minor radius, R is the major radius, is the pole number and M is the helical period number of the magnetic field. Theoretical characteristics of Heliotron E are summarized in section 2. Initial experiments in 1980 - 3 were mainly for studying ohmically heated plasmas. Topics relating to current-carrying plasmas are reviewed in section 3. In Heliotron E the first currentless plasma was produced by ECRH using a gyrotron with a frequency of 28 GHz in 1982. Then the gyrotron frequency was increased to 53 GHz to produce higher density currentless plasmas. After NBI heating of the target plasma produced by ECRH was successful, currentless plasmas were studied intensively in Heliotron E. In section 4, the production and heating of currentless plasmas by ECRH, NBI and ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) are summarized. MHD properties of currentless Heliotron E plasmas are summarized in section 5. Confinement and transport are discussed for ECRH, NBI and ICRF plasmas in section 6. Characteristics of edge plasma and plasma - wall interaction in Heliotron E are summarized in section 7. Configuration improvement and future directions based on Heliotron E results are discussed in section 8.