Visiting Manfred Bader

Visiting Manfred Bader - Former T/R Pilot

by Göran Olsson, February 2002

In December 1998 I got an e-mail from one Manfred Bader, who had found my site. He told me he once was a member of the German team in F2C, and finished fifth in the 1970 World Champs with pitman Konrad Kaul.

He had seen that I worked in the space trade, and told that he did so too, at the Dornier facility in Friedrichshafen (now Astrium). He also saw that we worked on some common projects, so he said that if I ever had business in Friedrichshafen, I could pay him a visit. Funnily enough, I had been there just one month before!! - And I had a few more visits planned, so some time later I got the opportunity to see him.

The Dornier site is big, with dozens of buildings, but it turned out his office was in the nearby building, exactly opposite the office assigned to the visiting engineers. Small world! He is managing the spacecraft test and assembly facility there. (By the shores of the Bodensee [Lake Constance])

Bader/Kaul had close connections to Paul Bugl, and he claimed they had never paid a pfennig for a HP or Bugl engine! Delivery wasn't the most dependable though!

Through his job he was able to get hold of something very rare at that time, carbon fibre, and was one of the first to use it for propellers.

He quit when his pitman moved to Ecuador.

In the spring of 2000 Manfred and his wife Sigrid took a trip to Stockholm, and Manfred got to fly C/L for the first time in decades, piloting my Goodyear model as if no time had flown. (Something new to them was my optical timer, just out of my workshop at that time.)

Manfred with early seventies model in excellent condition (except for the magnesium pan, where time has taken its toll!)

Bader-Kaul-modified HP 15 engine (Manfred later sold it to a collector. It was then seen traded on Ebay 1st March 2002 for 820 Euros! Manfred only saw a fraction of that money!)