I have the AFEE report on the testing of the Fa 330 at both RAF Beaulieu and Calshot. At Beaulieu it was mounted on a trailer which had a winch mounted on it and towed down the runway by a Jeep with a very tall windscreen ie the Rotabuggy without its rotor and tailfeathers. At Calshot it was mounted on the stern of an RAF tender and flown off that (the worlds smallest aircraft carrier?).
The report on the Rotatank suggested that it could be towed by a Halifax which in turn would be towed by a Dakota! Each aircraft would have a 600 ft tow rope – the mind boggles. A Dakota halfway down the runway going flat out and the tank not even moving!

If you want a a historic gyro ask the Museum at Middle Wallop for a loan of the original drawings they have for the Hafner Rotabuggy, the flying Jeep – the rotor system bits of it anyway, for the tail and fins you’ll need to find out if ML aviation (or whaterver they are called now) still have those drawings. These were originally drawn by R Malcolm Ltd of Slough who were part of ML.
For a real challenge how about creating Hafner’s Rotatank, a Valentine with a 152 ft dia rotor!
OK the Rotabuggy didn’t exactly work and the Rotatank never went further than an official report / proposal, but so what.

You might like to try and find the Aeroplane Collection (Last heard of at Hooton Park in Cheshire) as I recall my family donating a collection of AVRO blue prints to the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society (TACs original name).
The prints were from a collection of momentos of my grandfather who was Works foreman at AVROs Newton Heath factory during WW2.
The collection of drawings certainly contained the wing jigs for the Lancaster, these being modified from Manchester jig drawings on the kitchen table by my grandfather. I recall that some Anson drawings were in the collection as well.
However I don’t know if the drawings still exist (or TAC for that matter).

The Airborne Forces Experimental Establishemnt did clear the Lancaster for parachuting and glider towing – its just that Bomber Command didn’t want to release them. A Lanc B1 Special was also used on trials drops for the Boom Patrol Boat (an exploding power boat) belonging to the early SBS, with the crew sat inside!
The AFEE work on the Lancaster permitted them to clear the Manchester at the same time even though they didn’t have an aircraft!
My collection of AFEE reports also have another AVRO aircraft being tested for para work the York. The report on it mentions a feature of the York that I’ve never seen described before – the bomb bay for the supply containers.

N S Norway’s wartime carreer in the Royal Navy’s Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development could almost be used in scripts for Dad’s Army. In fact one did. Norway had a hand in the Great Panjandrum, The rocket powered wheel.

Mention of the Rotabuggy (not rota jeep) reminds me that Herr Hafner proposed a larger version of his concept – the Rota Tank, how about a Valantine tank with a 152 ft diameter rotor towed into the air by a Halifax which in turn would have been towed by a Dakota – honest.
Also if we’re mentioning Noel Pemberton Billing’s mad idea’s (Slip wing Hurricane) may I propose the Hillson Bi mono for the thread to codgetate on.

In an original copy of Minget’s book I’ve seen, and one that was used to build a Flea, there was a handwritten ammendment to lengthen the fuselage by 300mm dated 1937. Another mod replaced the cable that pulled the forward wing down (for pitch up) with a tube that allowed the wing to be pushed up (for pitch down).
I understand that the original fatal dive problem was a function of the main wing interacting with the rear wing when too much nose up pitch was applied, so a method of increasing the spacing between the wings and ensuring the pilot had a way of pushing the forward wing up was needed.
I doubt if fleas were modified before WW2 broke out, and anyway following the war the memory of the ‘killer flea’ was stronger than the memory that Farnborough had found a solution.