That is interesting, Mr. Bartley. I think that you already know more about Mr. Flettner than I do. We can be sure that Dr. Flettner designed the Colibri “synchropter.” There is a lot of conflicting information about his relationship with Kaman. I will be interested to read your conclusions in the matter. Thank you.

Very informative site, I found it in the course of doing some research on helicopter pioneer Anton Flettner for possible use in a biography aimed at young readers.

You cite Flettner as being the designer of the Kaman Husky in this post (for some reason, I could not comment directly to it, so am commenting here):

http://www.thisdayinaviation.com/9-december-1959/

and some other sources also say he was Kaman’s “chief designer”. However, when I contacted Kaman about Flettner the only thing they knew about him was from a brief reference in a 1985 company history that acknowledged his having developed the first mesh rotor, but did not identify him as a company employee at all, although there was a picture of him with Charles Kaman.

I’m trying to find out more about Flettner’s career and life in the US post-WWII and to clear up some of the apparent discrepancies in accounts about his relationship with Kaman.

Any info you might have, or useful direction you could point me in would
be most appreciated.

Thank you,

DB

Hamamatsu, Japan