Erich Bachem

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Big flight day Kassel-Waldau 1938, Erich Bachem and Hanna Reitsch in conversation

Erich Hermann Bachem (born August 12, 1906 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † March 25, 1960 there ) was a German engineer, designer and pioneer in the field of rocket technology.

Life

Erich Bachem came from a Rhenish Catholic merchant family; his father was a chemist in Mülheim an der Ruhr. After graduating from high school in his hometown in 1925 , he began studying mechanical engineering at the Stuttgart University of Technology . Here he came into contact with aviation for the first time.

After completing his studies as a graduate engineer and a stopover in Berlin, where he trained as a master flight engineer, he accepted a position as technical director at the Fieseler works in Kassel in 1933 . In 1938 Bachem became head of the development department. He also made a name for himself as an author with a textbook on gliding and a publication on aircraft as a means of mass transportation of the future. During this time Bachem designed the Aero-Sport, one of the first caravans ; this was built mainly from plywood by the glider manufacturer Wolf Hirth in Kirchheim unter Teck . Bachem was Technical Director at Fieseler until early 1942; then he founded Bachem-Werke GmbH in Waldsee in February 1942, a supplier for the aviation industry .

Towards the end of the war, he built the first vertical take off manned rocket aircraft Bachem Ba 349 , better known under the name "Natter", for the SS , which completed its first (and only) manned test flight on March 1, 1945. The test pilot Lothar Sieber was killed.

In 1947/48 Erich Bachem left Germany via Switzerland to move to Argentina. Possibly he wanted to avoid US agents who were planning to send him to the USA together with the Wernher von Braun group ( Operation Overcast ) . In Argentina, among other things, he built a factory for guitars with exchangeable bases.

Ruhrthaler Maschinenfabrik Schwarz & Dyckerhoff

In 1952 Bachem returned to Germany to become technical director of his father-in-law Heinrich Wilhelm Schwarz's company in Mülheim an der Ruhr , the Ruhrthaler Maschinenfabrik Schwarz & Dyckerhoff GmbH. There he developed modern, streamlined mine locomotives , Ruhrthaler "Vollsicht", as well as various other mining machines and surface diesel locomotives . Erich Bachem held this post until his untimely death.

Eriba

From 1957 he and Erwin Hymer built various caravans for his company Hymer in Bad Waldsee , which were produced under the brand name Eriba (for Eri ch Ba chem or his wife Eri ka Ba chem) with type designations such as Troll and Puck . Hymer also produced a mobile home for the French market under the name Eriba.

His widow Erika Bachem was co-owner of the Eriba-Werke after Erich Bachem's death. She died in 1978 in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

Works

  • The practice of high-performance glider flying , Volckmann, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1932, 2nd expanded edition 1936
  • The problem of the fastest flight , Franckh, Stuttgart 1933
  • Contribution in: Problems from basic astronautical research , ed. v. Heinz H. Koelle , 1952

literature

  • Obituary article in: Scientific Society for Aviation and Space Travel : Yearbook , vol. 1960, p. 479
  • Hans Grimm: The rocket pioneer Erich Bachem , in: In the Oberland - culture magazine of the district of Ravensburg, issue 2/1992, pp. 43–52
  • Volker Hammermeister: The legend is alive , in: Caravaning, issue 2/2007, p. 12f
  • Hartmut Löffel et al .: Erich Bachem ; in: Hartmut Löffel (ed.): Upper Swabia as a landscape of flying. An anthology . Konstanz & Eggingen: Edition Isele, 2007; Pp. 357-360. ISBN 978-3-86142-429-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Wade: Erich Bachem in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English), accessed on January 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Bachem's secret project "Natter". In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved January 18, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Erwin Hymer , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 07/2012 of February 14, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
personal data
SURNAME Bachem, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bachem, Erich Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and designer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1960
Place of death Mülheim an der Ruhr