It was said the World War II Jeep could do almost anything—if only it could fly. Meet the 1943 Hafner Rotabuggy, the unlikely pairing of a Willys Jeep and a gyrocopter.
It’s often been said that the Jeep was one of the Allies’ most valuable tools in winning World War II. Willys-Overland and Ford built more than 650,000 of the trusty machines for the combined war effort, and they could seemingly do almost anything—except, perhaps, airdrop themselves into a combat zone. Enter the Rotabuggy, developed by Austrian-born aeronautical engineer Raoul Hafner for the British Air Ministry.
The Rotabuggy was roughly based on an earlier Hafner invention, the Rotachute, a rotary-wing glider designed to airdrop a commando behind enemy lines with greater landing accuracy than a parachute. A standard Willys Jeep MB was fitted with a stabilizer tail and a superstructure of steel tubing to support the blade assembly. Two pilots were required, one to handle the Jeep upon landing and another to manage the control column for the rotating wing.
In November of 1943 the Rotabuggy lifted off the runway and took to the air while pulled behind a supercharged 4.5-liter Bentley, followed by more flights with an air tow from a Armstrong Whitworth Whitley twin-engine bomber. In its last flight in mid-1944, the gyro-Jeep remained airborne for ten minutes at 65 mph and an altitude of 400 feet. However, the test operators reported that the Jeep glider was both terrifying and exhausting to keep under control, while landings were especially difficult. Fortunately, by then the Britsh military had developed winged gliders that could deliver motor vehicles and the project was dropped.
While the Rotabuggy never entered into service, after the war Hafner joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company as chief designer for helicopters, where he led the development of the Bristol 171 Sycamore, Britain’s first successful helicopter. Although the Rotabuggy prototype was scrapped, a faithful replica is on display at the Army Flying Museum in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, UK.
The Bensen Gyrocopter mentioned had two versions, one without a powerplant and another with a McCullough engine mounted behind the pilot. It used a “pusher” propeller. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bensen_B-8. My cousin built one from a kit and it flew quite well. I can’t tell from the photos of the Rotabuggy whether it was powered or just free-gliding.
Definitely a glider.
Can you imagine dropping out of the sky onto a field at 50 mph in a Jeep and trying to drive it?
Ok… Now I think I have seen everything.