Raoul Hafner - Visionary • Inventor • Helicopter Pioneer

Mike O’Donoghue traces Raoul Hafner’s helicopter designs and wartime experiments, joined by Hafner’s grandson Ben Clothier and Giles Austin.

The illustrated talk follows Raoul Hafner’s experiments in Vienna, wartime Rotachute and Rotabuggy, the Bristol Sycamore and his later convertiplane ideas. Mike O’Donoghue draws on photographs, drawings, contemporary documents and recollections. Ben Clothier, Hafner’s grandson, and Giles Austin, son of Hafner’s colleague Reg Austin, join him to add personal connections to Hafner’s legacy. The lecture starts at 19:00. An optional dinner is served in the Apache Café at 18:00.