page_title: Anton Flettner
section_title: Post World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Anton Flettner / Post World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: The Plymouth A-A-2004, Flettner rotor aircraft
context_page_description: Anton Flettner was a German aviation engineer and inventor. Born in Eddersheim, Flettner made important contributions to airplane, helicopter, vessel, and automobile designs.
  After serving Germany in both World Wars, Anton Flettner emigrated to the United States post World War II as a consultant to the office of Naval Research at the United States Navy.
  Anton Flettner attended the Fulda State Teachers College in Fulda, Germany. He was the village teacher in Pfaffenwiesbach from 1906-1909. Flettner subsequently taught high school mathematics and physics in Frankurt, where he developed ideas that would assist Germany in World War I.
  Flettner revolutionized the art of harnessing the wind, used essentially in an unaltered form for thousands of years—the canvas sail—by a modern machine—the Flettner Rotor ship—that could permit ocean liners to reduce their crews by two-thirds and save 90 percent in fuel.
context_section_description: Upon the war's conclusion, Anton Flettner was held in the "Dustbin" interrogation camp at Kransberg Castle.  After 1945, Flettner, along with many other aviation pioneers, was brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip.  Flettner and his partner, Dr. Kurt Hohenemser, were among the first German emigrants into the United States after World War II.
  Flettner started Flettner Aircraft Corporation, which developed helicopters for the U.S. military. 
  In 1949, Flettner employed Kurt Hohenemser as a consultant to the Flettner Aircraft Corporation.  Flettner and Kurt Hohenemser, who together developed numerous patents in Germany, kept in close contact after both men emigrated to the United States.
  Flettner's company in the U.S. was not commercially successful, but his work was shared with the US Army Air Forces.  Throughout his 14 years in the United States, Flettner was active in carrying out research projects for the US Army, US Air Force, and the US Navy.
  Flettner became the chief designer of Kaman Aircraft and many of the Flettner design concepts are found in Kaman helicopters of later years.
  Today the Flettner rotor is in operation as a supplemental propulsion system for transport and research vessels.  There are two ships utilizing the concept of the Flettner rotor in a modified form, the turbosail Acyone developed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1985 and the E-Ship 1, a cargo ship that made its first voyage in 2010. Albert Einstein praised the Flettner Rotor ship as having great practical importance.
  Anton Flettner's colleague and former partner, Kurt Hohenemser, worked his remaining years in the United States to prove Flettner's idea that properly designed flexible helicopter-type rotors are more suitable for producing electricity from the wind than rigid airplane-type rotors.  An offshore wind energy project announced in February 2017, involving Seawind Ocean Technology B.V., aims to demonstrate the wind energy applications put forth by Anton Flettner, Kurt Hohenemser, and Glidden Doman (American aeronautical engineer) in harsh wind and sea conditions.
  Anton Flettner died at age 76 in New York City on December 29, 1961.  Among his many distinctions,  Anton Flettner was an honorary member of the American Helicopter Society and the Convertible Aircraft Pioneers.  Flettner's birthplace home and tomb are national historic protected monuments in Germany.
caption: Flettner Rotor Aircraft (The Plymouth A-A-2004)
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