Hafner AR.III

Ouija board required. 😉

Here is a photo of the Hafner.

http://www.aviarmor.net/aww2/Exp_A/gb/Hafner%20Gyroplane.htm

Thank you, heli1. It’s good to have such information from one who knows. I wonder what was the source of Arthur Ord-Hume’s assertion that the AR.III survived the war?

Just woken up from a long sleep !
The R11 was indeed at the Weston factory of the Bristol Aeroplane Company in the late 1950s when the Helicopter Division was based there.I suspect it was at Filton before that or possibly at the Banwell factory where Raoul Hafner first set up his office in 1944.
I do know the crate was “rediscovered” circa 1961 and the R11 displayed at the local carnival before it later went to the Shuttleworth Trust on loan,minus the original rotor blades which were scrapped.One of these went home with Raoul to form a bannister decoration at his house and two were salvaged by Elfan Ap Rees who took them home for safekeeping.Both were very waterlogged and full of woodworm I recall.
Later the R11 went to Torbay and the late Keith Fordyce museum on loan before eventually going to the Helicopter Museum for restoration and permanent display ,reunited with the original blades.
Throughout this period I have never heard anything about the AR111 surviving and certainly it doesnt appear to have returned to hafner ownership post war.

It rings a bell from years ago that there were parts of another Hafner machine in store with the R2 either at Shuttleworth or before Shuttleworth acquired it but I have checked back through Veteran and Vintage aircraft and anything else I can think of and haven’t been able to find the reference. I am sure it wasn’t the rotary parachute so it is possible it was parts of R3.
Ring a bell with anyone else?

Wot! Not got any ideas!

Thank you, Roger, for that hint. Looking at W&R 2 (1963), the R-II is then listed as being stored at Weston-super-Mare. If I’m correct in my recollection that this was the site of what once was the Bristol Helicopter factory and that Raoul Hafner was the Chief Designer there, that would seem logical. It would be equally logical for the R-II subsequently to be at Yeovil, having regard to the fact that Hafner became Technical Director to Westland when it acquired Bristol’s helicopter interests. Both tend to suggest that Hafner took the R-II with him to each of his workplaces which, in turn, suggests that during the last war he stored the R-II and that, in consequence, it was more treasured than, presumably, the AR.III was whilst the RAE at Farnborough was its custodian. So after this tangential excursion, back to the question of when, where and how the AR.III met its end!

If it’s any help, “Wrecks & Relics” says the R.II was at Yeovil before it’s very long stint with Shuttleworth at Old Warden.

Roger Smith.

it would seem reasonable to assume that he would have stored the R3 as well assuming that he got it back from Farnborough

There, I suspect, is the rub. Did the R-II go to the RAE? I haven’t been able to find anything to suggest that it did. If it didn’t, that might be the reason why it survived and the AR.III apparently did not. Maybe someone associated with the Helicopter Museum at Weston-super-Mare can shed light upon the wartime storage of the R-II and how it re-emerged post war? But in the meantime, thank you for your input WJ244.

Only info I can find on the web is that the registration was cancelled in 1946 and that the last flight was allegedly in 1941 at RAE. There is also mention of it being re engined at RAE following a landing accident
I also found a report of the R2 that still survives being brought out of storage by Hafner post war and, as the R3 was far more successful than the R2 it would seem reasonable to assume that he would have stored the R3 as well assuming that he got it back from Farnborough.
You have found another obscure one to solve AA. Makes the mysteries of Biafran Ansons that never actually got to Biafra seem comparatively easy to solve!