Dipl Ing August Stepan FRAeS - An Engineer's Story

In preparing for the 2003 Hofstra University "From Autogiro to Gyroplane: The Past, Present and Future of an Aviation Industry" Conference, David Groen of Groen Brothers Aviation suggested that it would be fitting to invite, and facilitate the attendance of August Stepan, then resident in a nursing home in Vienna, Austria. This never happened as it was quickly ascertained that Stepan was too frail to travel - the result being that an opportunity to celebrate a forgotten pioneer of rotary-wing aviation went unrealized.1 Groen had happened upon Stepan while delving deeply into the history of the 'Fairey Rotodyne' and his pioneering work both during WWII and afterwards on the application of jet-tipped rotor technology. Stepan soon died, and this paper represents an attempt to rediscover this forgotten pioneer, initiated in part by both his own brief summary of his aviation life, and the memories of remaining friends and colleagues who were fortunate as young men to work with Stepan.