Raoul Hafner

Raoul Hafner, (1905–1980) FEng, FRAes, was an Austrian-born British helicopter pioneer and engineer. He was a pioneer of rotating wing aircraft design and died as a result of a yachting accident. He made a distinctive contribution to the British aerospace industry, particularly in the development of helicopters.

Born in 1905, he was educated in Vienna, first at the university and then at technical college where he became interested in rotary-wing concept as a means of making aircraft land more slowly and safely. He obtained a post with the Austrian Air Traffic Company, but his heart was in helicopter design, to which he devoted his spare time, developing the R (Revoplane) 1 and R2.

Subsequently, he gave up his job to concentrate on helicopters, building the R2 in 1929 and planning the R3. But instead of constructing the latter, he decided after hearing of the work of the Spanish pioneer Juan de la Cierva in England, to design an autogyro incorporating the principles of the R1 and R2.

The Scottish cotton millionaire Major Jack Coates, who had financed Hafner’s work in Vienna, had the R2 shipped to Heston Aerodrome in 1933, and Hafner himself made contact with the Cierva Company and learned to fly its C.19 and C.30 autogyros. He parted company with Nagler who had come from Austria with him and concentrated on gyroplane design over helicopters. Then in 1934 his own company, the ARIII Construction (Hafner Gyroplane) Co, began to design the ARIII Gyroplane, first flown in 1935 and widely demonstrated afterward. It incorporated the then new principles of cyclic and collective pitch controls.

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