(1881 – 1960)

Engineer, helicopter and aeronautics pioneer.

He was only 18 when he built his first glider, pulled up into the air by a motorcycle. Later on, during his military service at a military factory near Vienna, he was in charge of propeller testing. Asbóth constructed and tested some 1500 propellers in the wind tunnel of the factory.
A decade later he built his first helicopter, powered by a 9-cylinder 120 HP engine, propelled by two wooden propellers, each 4.35 meters in diameter and placed parallel to above each other rotating in opposite direction. His model ‘AH-1’ took off on September 9, 1928. For its maiden flight, after reaching 1100 RPM, the helicopter swiftly took off, stopped at ten meters, but then hovered for some ten minutes and then smoothly descended.

He has received many awards but – as usual at the time – he was recognized much more in foreign countries than in his homeland.