Alfons Pützer

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Alfons Pützer (born August 3, 1918 in Bonn ; † August 1, 1993 ibid) was a German aircraft designer and entrepreneur.

Life

Alfons Pützer was born as the last of eight children of the master turner Friedrich Pützer and his wife Therese Diestelrath shortly before the end of the First World War in 1918. He grew up in his father's medium-sized family business and learned to work with wood at an early age. At the age of ten, Alfons Pützer completed his first sightseeing flight with a Junkers F 13 from Westflug GmbH, which was stationed briefly in Bonn . Pützer then began building wooden flight models, which he initially manufactured in his father's workshop according to plans he had bought and later modified using experimental techniques. About the model learned Alfons Pützer originating also from Bonn Horten brothers , with whom he whose first early 30s flying wing - Glider Horten HI built.

Early years

Alfons Pützer attended the theoretical and practical aviation course at the commercial vocational school in Bonn in 1933. Here Alfons Pützer took part in the construction of an " RRG Zögling " glider , on which practical pilot training took place in 1934. In March 1936, Alfons Pützer acquired the “B” gliding license from the German Air Sports Association . After graduating from high school, Alfons Pützer first joined the Reich Labor Service in 1938 and then joined the Air Force as a soldier in the air defense . In the winter of 1941/42, Alfons Pützer was released from military service by the Luftwaffe to take up an engineering degree in aircraft construction at RWTH Aachen University . In Aachen, Alfons Pützer joined the Aviation Technical Group (FFG), which carried out test flights in Aachen for the German Research Institute for Glider Flight (DFS). Before completing his studies, the studies in Aachen had to be stopped before the approaching Allied associations in autumn 1944. Instead of going to the Eastern Front, however, Alfons Pützer was requested by his childhood friend Reimar Horten to join his Air Force Command IX in Göttingen, where Alfons Pützer took over construction work on the Horten H VIII . As a member of the Air Force, Alfons Pützer fell into American captivity here in the spring of 1945.

Post-war years

Alfons Pützer returned to Bonn from prisoner of war as early as 1945 and rebuilt his father's destroyed turnery workshop here, which he later passed on to his eldest brother. From 1949, Alfons Pützer built his own wood processing company for industrial assemblies in Bonn as part of Alfons Pützer KG . In the same year he married his wife Elisabeth Eller. The marriage resulted in three children who were born by the end of 1952.

Aircraft construction at Alfons Pützer KG

Alfons Pützer KG received its first construction contract for an aircraft in 1953 from Walter Horten. He handed over the construction of the prototype of his first post-war design Horten Ho 33 to Alfons Pützer KG . Alfons Pützer established an aircraft construction department within Alfons Pützer KG, but it remained part of Alfons Pützer KG. The "Pützer Flugzeugbau KG", which is often mentioned in various sources, did not exist.

From 1954, Alfons Pützer and Fritz Raab developed the first two-seater Pützer Motorraab motorized touring aircraft , which made its maiden flight on the day motorized flight was released in Germany in 1955. From it, Pützer and Raab developed the first series-built Pützer Elster motorized aircraft , of which more than 40 machines were built, for the aviation groups of the newly founded Luftwaffe by 1958 .

Together with Prof. Karl Lürenbaum from RWTH Aachen University, Pützer built the long-distance wave test vehicle Pützer Dohle for Walter Horten in 1957 , with which Alfons Pützer himself carried out extensive tests to design an optimal motor glider . At the end of the 1950s, Alfons Pützer and other motor glider manufacturers were involved in the introduction of the K-Class motor gliders with reduced approval requirements compared to conventional motorized aircraft in Germany. Around the same time, Alfons Pützer KG produced the first usable Pützer MS-60 motor glider . During the development work on the MS-60, the first contact was made with the French aircraft designer René Fournier , with whom Alfons Pützer later founded the motor glider company Sportavia on the Dahlemer Binz.

In addition to designing motor gliders, Alfons Pützer worked at Alfons Pützer KG from 1958 onwards with several test vehicles that he built for Karl Lürenbaum and his long-time friend Erich Ufer from Bölkow GmbH . Together with Karl Lürenbaum, Alfons Pützer built the long-distance wave test vehicle Pützer Bussard SR-57, which was developed to meet the demands of the German armed forces for an inexpensive propeller trainer with jet flight properties. This test vehicle was later equipped with a ring tail unit developed by Erich Ufer at Bölkow GmbH.

Since 1958, Alfons Pützer has been working closely with Ludwig Bölkow and Erich Ufer on the question of plastics in aircraft construction, with whom Alfons Pützer worked on a number of publicly funded basic projects. For this basic research, Alfons Pützer founded the Pützer Kunststofftechnik KG (PKT) at the end of the 1950s , in which the projects were coordinated. Around 1960, the group developed the design of the first all-plastic motorized airplane Bölkow-Pützer BP 205 , which was later realized together with Hanno Fischer from Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH (RFB) as part of the Leichtflugtechnik Union GmbH founded for this purpose as LFU 205 until 1968. From these basic projects, Pützer Kunststofftechnik KG, together with its partners Bölkow and RFB, achieved a technology advantage over other competitors that lasted for several decades.

Series aircraft contractor

Apart from the Pützer "Elster", the aircraft construction activities within Alfons Pützer KG in the first ten years mainly served Alfons Pützer to implement suitable constructions for his idea of ​​"flying for everyone" and to manufacture them later in large series. With the introduction of the K-class of motor gliders and the design of the MS-60 motor glider, the basic requirements for large-scale production at Alfons Pützer KG were created in 1962. To test the marketability of a modern motor glider in Germany, acquired Alfons Pützer 1963, the marketing rights in Germany and Austria for those of René Fournier developed and in France Alpavia SA produced Fournier RF-3 , which settle in a short time in large numbers in Germany let.

Since the production capacities at Alpavia in Gap Tallard, France, could not be expanded sufficiently to meet European demand, Alfons Pützer and the Alpavia owner Antoine d'Assche agreed in 1964 to found a new joint company under the name Sportavia-Pützer GmbH & Co KG for the Pützer had a new production facility built at the Dahlemer Binz Eifel airfield . Alfons Pützer took over management of the company in 1966, while Antoine d'Assche, as a shareholder, was responsible for sales in the French-speaking region. Alfons Pützer then transferred the aircraft construction department of Alfons Pützer KG to the new company. René Fournier took over the development of new aircraft types for Sportavia in the development office in Nitray, France, and after completion of the development handed them over to Sportavia for series production under a license manufacturing agreement. A total of 543 aircraft were built at Sportavia between 1966 and 1982, the vast majority of which were one or two-seater motor gliders of the Fournier RF-4 and Fournier RF-5 types .

Since 1972, Sportavia has also created several of its own aircraft designs, some of which are based on designs by René Fournier, such as the Sportavia RF-5B, which is optimized for gliding, or the RFB-Sportavia RS-180 . For military purposes, Alfons Pützer developed the Sportavia S-5 and C.1 , as well as a "quiet transporter" and a Sportavia RPV drone . With the last motor glider design Sportavia MS-75 or MS-II , Alfons Pützer tried again from 1973 to tie in with his own motor glider MS-60.

retirement

For family reasons, Alfons Pützer gradually left his company from 1977. He sold his Sportavia and LFU shares to Rhein-Flugzeugbau. Alfons Pützer KG took over his nephew Rudolf Pützer. Alfons Pützer remained on the advisory board of Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH in Mönchengladbach until the early 1990s.

On November 20, 1984, Alfons Pützer received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on behalf of Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker . Alfons Pützer died one day before his 75th birthday on August 2, 1993 in Bonn at the age of 74.

Aircraft developments by and with Alfons Pützer

Almost 480 aircraft that were developed or co-developed by Alfons Pützer were built between 1953 and 1982

Individual evidence for each aircraft can be found at:

  • Horten Ho 33 - design by Walter Horten, two prototypes built by Alfons Pützer KG from 1953
  • Pützer Motorraab - motorized "Doppelraab" in cooperation with Fritz Raab, four of them built by Alfons Pützer KG from 1955 onwards
  • Pützer Dohle - long-distance wave test vehicle for Walter Horten and test vehicle for motor glider designs, unique item
  • Pützer Elster - "Motorraab" further developed with Fritz Raab, approx. 41 pieces at Alfons Pützer KG, approx. 4-5 at Sportavia-Pützer
  • Pützer Bussard - long-distance wave test carrier for Karl Lürenbaum, later ring tail carrier for Erich Ufer, one-off
  • Pützer MS-60 - motor glider test aircraft, one-off
  • Bölkow-Pützer BP 205 - forerunner of the LFU-205, not built
  • LFU 205 - the first all-plastic powered aircraft in cooperation with Bölkow KG and Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH, one-off
  • Sportavia HLMS - project study of a high-performance motor glider around 1968
  • Sportavia RF-4D - motor glider with René Fournier, 1966, 159 pieces built by Sportavia-Pützer, WNr. 4004-4158 (1967-1969)
  • Fournier RF-5 - two-seat variant of the RF-4, 1968, 1 × prototype from René Fournier, 135 pieces Sportavia-Pützer (1969–1975), 10 pieces Aero Jaen (1991–1995)
  • Sportavia RF-5B Sperber - modified RF-5 at Sportavia, 1971, 80 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 51001-51079 (1971-1977)
  • Sportavia C1 / S5 - up to 5 test vehicles at Sportavia based on RF-5 (quiet aircraft, radar measurement)
  • Sportavia Quiet Transporter - 7-seater transporter as a quiet flyer, projected
  • Sportavia RPV - remote piloted vehicle, transport drone, projected
  • Fournier RF-6 - 2 + 2-seat sport aircraft, 1973, 2 prototypes
  • Sportavia RF-6C - four-seater RF6 at Sportavia, 1975, 4 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 6001-6004 (1975-1976)
  • RFB-Sportavia RS-180 - further developed RF-6C at Sportavia, 1976, 18 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 6005-6022 (1976-1981)
  • Fournier RF-7 - further development of the RF-4D for Sportavia with Limbach L1700D, 1970, a prototype
  • Sportavia P.68 Observer - observation and police aircraft from 1976, unique piece
  • Sportavia MS-75, MS-II - motor glider design from 1973-1976

Car Airplane Designs

  • Pützer Air Auto - incl.Air Auto, P.307B, flight vehicle, studies from 1960-1963

literature

  • Paul Zöller, Hanns-Jakob Pützer: Pützer aircraft. Dec. 2018, ISBN 978-3-7481-2096-4
  • Paul Zöller: Fournier aircraft. 2017, ISBN 978-3-7460-4864-2
  • nn: The constructions of Alfons Pützer - The Elster took a short flight. , FliegerRevue Booklet X, pp. 56–59
  • Heinz Dieter Schneider: Alfons Pützer and his corvids. Classic 3/2007 and 4/2007 aircraft

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Zöller, Hanns-Jakob Pützer: Pützer aircraft. Dec. 2018, ISBN 978-3-7481-2096-4
  2. ↑ The constructions of Alfons Pützer - A short flight of the Elster. In: FliegerRevue October 2010, pp. 56–59.
  3. ^ Website Rudolf Pützer GmbH , accessed on February 9, 2015.
  4. ^ Paul Zöller: Fournier aircraft. 2017, ISBN 978-3-7460-4864-2
  5. ^ Obituary for Alfons Pützer in Aerokurier 11/1993; Page 27.
  6. ^ Paul Zöller, Hanns-Jakob Pützer: Pützer aircraft. Dec. 2018, ISBN 978-3-7481-2096-4
personal data
SURNAME Pützer, Alfons
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Puetzer, Alfons
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aircraft designer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1993
Place of death Bonn