Zahlen, bitte! The 1500-meter flight of the world's first jet
The first jet in world history flew as early as 1928: the glider equipped with rockets by Fritz von Opel flew 1500 meters in its first test.
(Image: heise online)
On June 11, 1928, the first manned rocket flight took off from a rubber catapult and landed safely after a 1500-meter flight. An aircraft called the Lippisch-Ente, originally designed as a glider, was equipped with two rockets that were ignited one after the other using a foot pedal. The test flight was intended to prepare for the demonstration flight with which Fritz von Opel, known as "Raketenfritz", wanted to herald the rocket age in front of the assembled press.
Opel is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary as a car manufacturer and is being praised by the German Chancellor for its innovative strength [--] as a chancellor does on such a big anniversary. A somewhat different anniversary goes under the radar: On June 10 and 11, 1928, test pilot Franz Stamer climbed into an airplane designed by his brother-in-law Alexander Lippisch. This "Lippisch duck" had been specially built to fly with rockets supplied by Friedrich-Wilhelm Sander. The project was financed by automobile magnate Fritz von Opel, whose enthusiasm for rocket records had been awakened by Max Valier.
Rocket flight dreams with space as the goal
In 1927, the South Tyrolean astronomer and air force pioneer Valier published the popular science book "Der Vorstoß in den Weltenraum", in which he proposed the use of "rocket engines" for space flight. At the time, Fritz von Opel had switched to motorboat racing after Opel was excluded from German car racing. As head of the Opel test workshop, he recognized the potential of using rockets to promote the car brand. On March 23, 1928, Fritz von Opel thundered over the AVUS in a rocket car in front of the press and celebrities.
(Image: CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-06123)
Fritz von Opel was not only active on the road. On the Reichsbahn test track between Hanover and Celle, which was almost dead straight in places, the enterprising engineer carried out several rail tests near the village of Kleinburgwedel. On June 23, 1928, von Opel carried out several tests with the RAK-3 rocket rail vehicle, during which the rocket car reached speeds of up to 256 km/h and attracted a great deal of attention. The otherwise tranquil village was besieged by thousands of onlookers. Rak-4 exploded in the same place on August 4 [] further tests with Rak-5 were prohibited by the authorities, who had their hands full keeping the curious onlookers back. Fritz von Opel took to the air instead.
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First flight fails
The tests on the Wasserkuppe were intended as preparations for a similar show planned by the "Raketenfritz" from Rüsselsheim in neighboring Frankfurt am Main. The first flight on June 10 failed. The rocket burned out, but the duck remained on the ground. It was only when the rubber catapult of the gliders was used for the launch the next day that the world's first jet successfully took off and landed again. The two rockets, which only burned for 30 seconds each, enabled an 80-second flight, during which the duck covered 1500 meters. After landing safely, it was decided to make another flight in which both rockets were ignited simultaneously. One rocket exploded, but pilot Stamer managed to land the plane, which burned out on the ground.
While Alexander Lippisch continued to work on his flying wing concept, which later led to the development of the Me 163 (PDF), the designer Julius Hatry was commissioned to construct a high-wing monoplane for the flight planned in Frankfurt am Main. It was to be equipped with four main rockets and four additional engines. The record flight on the Frankfurt Rebstock site lasted 80 seconds and covered 2 kilometers, during which the plane reached 150 km/h. However, it ended with a spectacular crash. However, it ended in a spectacular crash because the power packs did not ignite properly.
Fritz von Opel survived unscathed, but had to abandon his plans to soon cross the English Channel in a rocket plane: The global economic crisis meant that the Opel automobile plants had to be sold to General Motors. The rocket planes rotted away, the rocket cars were dismantled and sold.
Von Opel leaves the company in anger
Fritz von Opel left the company, bitter that the Opel Regent he had designed had to be scrapped because it was competing with GM's Cadillac. The Opels (Fritz had married the actress Margot Sellnick in 1929) moved to Liechtenstein, later to Palm Beach, where they were interned in a camp when the USA entered the war. While Margot von Opel was soon released, the FBI remained suspicious of the "Rocket Fritz" until well after the end of the war.
The fact that von Opel had bought a chain of petrol stations from his fortune made him particularly suspicious. He was expropriated in 1951.
(Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, Bergfalke2)
At this point, we must remember the science journalist Otto Willi Gail, who is now celebrated as the Franconian Jules Verne. Gail caught rocket fever as early as 1923 after reading Hermann Orberth's book "Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen". He initially wrote a series of novels for young people, which today would be classified as science fiction.
Inspiring rocket stories
His connection to the fantastic novels of Jules Verne could be seen in the fact that Gail worked with the illustrator Richard von Grünburg, who also illustrated Verne's German translations. For Gail's 1928 novel "Hans Hardt's Moon Trip", von Grünburg drew a multi-jet rocket plane being launched from a ramp. At the same time, Gail and von Grünberg were working on a commemorative publication for Fritz von Opel, "the energetic and far-sighted promoter of the most monstrous problem of the present day". It was published with illustrations by Richard von Grünberg and numerous photos, also in 1928, under the title "Mit Raketenkraft ins Weltall. From the fire engine to the spaceship".
(Image: Autor)
First, this book describes the theory of rocket technology, the speed required to escape the earth's gravitational pull (11,200 meters per second), then discusses the various proposals by Robert Goddard and the aforementioned Hermann Oberth.
The practice of traveling by rocket car is then explained, ending with a description of a rocket flight to the moon. For Gail, the moon or a space station with huge mirrors is the necessary starting point for all expeditions into space, but also for the domination of the earth. "It would be easy for the commander of the space station to use his mirrors to set fire to munitions factories, destroy marching troops, reduce entire cities to ashes and nip any armaments of war in the bud … And so all these missile issues are not entirely pointless gimmicks after all. It is therefore all the more gratifying that Germany is now beginning to take this matter seriously, and that Fritz von Opel has finally found the man who is willing to develop the missile step by step into the engine of the future."
(dahe)
