{"id":894,"date":"2013-09-05T21:16:53","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T21:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rowlandwhite.com\/?p=894"},"modified":"2024-01-10T09:17:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T09:17:37","slug":"wings-of-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rowlandwhite.com\/?p=894","title":{"rendered":"WINGS OF GERMANY"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theory of Panspermia holds that life exists throughout the universe and was seeded here on earth by meteoroids and asteroids.\u00a0 It can seem sometimes almost as if Germany had a similar effect on the world of aviation.<\/p>\n

Twice, following two world wars, Germany\u2019s aircraft industry has been severely curtailed.\u00a0 On both occasions, to extend the biological metaphor by quoting from Jurassic Park<\/em>, \u2018life (or in this case Germany\u2019s talent for making aircraft) found a way\u2019.<\/p>\n

While the development of military aircraft was restricted under the Treaty of Versailles, German designers and engineers poured their energies into civil aviation and, as we\u2019ve seen elsewhere, gliding.\u00a0 This saw Lufthansa establish passenger and airmail routes across the globe, from South America to China.\u00a0 But it was in 1935, with their release from their Treaty obgligations, that saw the German aviation industry realise its potential.<\/p>\n

The Luftwaffe was re-established in March that year.\u00a0 Two months later a prototype for designer Willy Messerschmitt \u2018s new Me-109 fighter flew for the first time.\u00a0 An outstanding aircraft, it went on to be built in greater numbers than any other fighter in history. \u00a0\u00a0In 1937 it set a new world speed record for landplanes. But Germany was blessed with a surfeit of talent.\u00a0 That same year, designer Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf began work on the design of the excellent Fw-190, while rivals Heinkel had, by 1938 claimed a new world speed record with their He-100 V8 fighter. \u00a0They raised it again the next year before the Messerschmitt Me-209 set a record of over 469 mph that was to stand for the next thirty years.\u00a0 In doing so they broke hearts at Supermarine, who realised that their own world record hopeful, the Speed Spitfire, wasn\u2019t going to get close.<\/p>\n

At the same time engineers like Wernher von Braun and Eugen Sangar were developing rocket engines and, in the case of the latter, plans for a sub-orbital placeplane.<\/p>\n

During World War Two, German aircraft manufacturers were at the mercy of the priorities established by the Nazi leadership.\u00a0 On on hand it meant concentrating producing large numbers of existing designs to the exclusion of some promising new ones, on the other, as the prospect of defeat loomed larger, the development of advanced aerospace projects it was hoped by regain the initiative.\u00a0 Out of this came projects Messerschmitt\u2019s Me-262 jet fighter, the Horten Ho 229 flying wing jet bomber, Alexander Lippisch\u2019s Me-163 rocket fighter and the V2 rocket.\u00a0 Only the Me-262, foolishly pressed into service as a fighter bomber rather than being used as a fighter, bore any resemblance to what was being developed by the allies.<\/p>\n

With the war\u2019s end, through a land grab by the British, Americans, French and Soviets, the men and machines of the German aerospace industry were soon dispersed around the world.<\/p>\n

In 1947, by suggesting to his employers, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, that a delta wing was the most suitable shape for a supersonic airliner, aerodynamicist Dietrich Kuchemann launched in the right direction the research that led to Concorde.<\/p>\n

In America the Werner von Braun\u2019s V-2 rocket became the foundation of the US space programme.\u00a0 Von Braun, famously, led the effort to put men on the moon.\u00a0 In the 1950s, in a series of articles for Colliers<\/em> magazine, he detailed his plans for man\u2019s conquest of space.\u00a0 It\u2019s become known as the von Braun paradigm. And, while his timeline may have been optimistic, he\u2019s been right so far.\u00a0 The moon landings, reusable space shuttles and a permanent space station are all in there. Expect a mission to Mars next.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Eugen Sanger founded the French Federation Astronautique<\/em> in 1949 while resisting Soviet attempts to persuade him to join their<\/em> German rocket scientists.\u00a0 Sanger later got himself into hot water for advising Egypt as they tried to develop a ballistic missile.\u00a0 But he was bored by the challenges on offer in post-war German aviation.\u00a0 After all, this was the man who came up with the idea of using a solar sail for interstellar travel.\u00a0 There were others, too who looked overseas.<\/p>\n

Willy Messerschmitt designed jets for Spain and Egypt.\u00a0 Focke-Wulf\u2019s Kurt Tank joined his compatriot Reimar Horten in Argentina.\u00a0 Horten designed and built a bizarre flying wing transport aircraft known as the Naranjero<\/em> because it was expected to freight oranges.\u00a0 Tank pursued a more conventional path designing the Iae 33 Pulqui jet fighter and IA.35 twin-engined utility plane.\u00a0 A coup forced Tank out of Argentina and on to India where he produced their first homegrown jet fighter, the HAL HF-24 Marut.<\/p>\n

And back home, Germany\u2019s own aviation industry, again forced to down tools at the end of the war, began building aircraft again in 1955.\u00a0 Beginning with licence built production of foreign aircraft like the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, companies like Messerschmitt and Dornier began to flourish again, but not as they once had.\u00a0 Not through individual brilliance.\u00a0 While Germany is well established as the world\u2019s leading glider maker, it\u2019s through international collaborations rather than invidual brilliance that she has reclaimed her place at the top of the pile as aircraft manufacturer.\u00a0 Among other things, the country is a major force behind the Airbus family of airliners, the Panavia Tornado strike jet and the Eurofighter Typhoon.<\/p>\n

It may be that these all stir the soul a little less than a vision like the Graf Zeppelin airship and some of the other exotica pictured here, but just remember that Sputnik, the Moon landings, Concorde, the Space Shuttle, the Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and many, many more wonderful flying machines all owe a huge debt to Germany\u2019s aerospace talent.<\/p>\n

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A few photos below to whet your appetite. Where I could I plumped for pictures of many of the WWII machines in the colours they wore after their capture by Allied forces, because for me at least, it just adds a further layer of interest.\u00a0 Real \u2018what-if\u2019 stuff.\u00a0 Love that picture of the US Army about to launch a black and yellow V2.\u00a0 Looks like a big rocket wasp or something \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n