Felix Kracht

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Felix Kracht (born May 13, 1912 in Krefeld ; † October 3, 2002 in Kirchweyhe near Bremen ) was a German engineer , pilot and aviation pioneer . In 1937 he was the first to fly over the Alps completely in a self-constructed glider. He is the inventor of the functional coupling of two aircraft during flight and developed military and civil aircraft in Germany and France in a key role. He is considered one of the fathers behind the founding of Airbus Industries and was its first production director and technical director in Toulouse from 1970 to 1981 .

Life

Early years

Kracht, who was interested in flying at an early age, graduated from high school in 1931 and then studied at the TH Aachen . He passed his diploma examination in February 1938, specializing in aircraft construction. During his studies he had already joined the Aviation Science Association Aachen (FVA) and in 1937 he played a key role in developing the performance glider FVA-10 -b Rhineland . With this glider he managed the first complete overflight of the Alps on May 30, 1937. The aircraft then went into series production at the Schmetz glider manufacturer owned by Ferdinand Bernhard Schmetz (1897–1968), the Herzogenrath needle manufacturer.

Second World War

During the Second World War , Felix Kracht worked at the German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS) in Darmstadt and was temporarily director of the DFS in Ainring. During this time he was instrumental in the development of the DFS 228 , an experimental high-altitude long-range reconnaissance aircraft with rocket propulsion, the rocket-powered high-speed aircraft DFS 346 and mistletoe towing .

Kracht also came up with the idea of ​​coupling aircraft together in flight. The test pilot Erich Klöckner tried this mechanism with a Focke-Wulf Fw 58 "Weihe", which was coupled to a Junkers Ju 52 towing machine. In the course of this development, coupled air refueling was also developed by DFS. Docking and air refueling played a central role in military aviation during the Cold War .

post war period

After the Second World War, Kracht was initially employed in France and in 1959 was assigned to the German Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH in Lemwerder as a representative of the French state-owned aircraft manufacturer Nord Aviation . There he was also in a leading position in the development of the Franco - German military transport aircraft Transall C-160 .

After completing the Transall project, Kracht returned to the German aviation industry and in 1967 became managing director of Deutsche Airbus GmbH in Munich . After founding the Airbus Industries consortium in 1970, in which he played a pioneering role, he went back to France and played a key role in designing the first Airbus models as technical and production director in Toulouse . In 1981 Felix Kracht retired and lived with his wife Gerda in Kirchweyhe near Bremen until his death.

When Airbus organized a big celebration for around 400 pioneers in the European aviation industry on January 31, 2001 in Toulouse, Kracht was one of the German guests of honor.

The “Felix Kracht Foundation”, which Kracht's wife Gerda set up, is managed in trust by the “Hessian Institute for Aviation eV” in Darmstadt. The aim of the foundation is to preserve historical gliders for posterity. In 2003, the foundation's chairman was Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Ewald.

At the administrative headquarters of Airbus in Toulouse, the building in which the demonstration models ( mock-ups ) of the current Airbus program are exhibited was named after Felix Kracht.

Kracht's daughter Barbara Kracht was also an Airbus employee for many years, including being a spokesperson for Airbus Military from 2008 to 2011 .

Honors

  • 1978: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 2016: Decision in Frankfurt am Main to name a street in the Rebstock-Nord-Ost development area in Bockenheim after Kracht. The street names on the former site of Frankfurt Airport particularly commemorate aviation pioneers.

bibliography

  • Marcel François Guillon, Felix Kracht: Hydraulic control loops and servo controls , Hanser-Verlag, 1968
  • Jean Charles Gille, Marc J. Pelegrin, Paul Decaulne, Felix Kracht: Course in control engineering . Vol. 1. Theory of Regulation , Oldenbourg-Verlag, 3rd edition 1967
  • Jean Charles Gille, Marc J. Pelegrin, Paul Decaulne, Felix Kracht: Course in control engineering . Vol. 2. Components of the control loops , Oldenbourg-Verlag, 2nd edition 1967
  • Jean Charles Gille, Marc J. Pelegrin, Paul Decaulne, Felix Kracht: Course in control engineering . Vol. 3. Draft of control loops , Oldenbourg-Verlag, 1963

literature

  • Horst Lommel: From height reconnaissance to space glider 1935-1945, DFS secret projects , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-02072-6

Web links

  • EADS obituary for Felix Kracht 2002 (in English) [1]
  • Celebration of the aviation pioneers at Airbus 2001 (with photo by Kracht) [2]
  • Airbus honors u. a. Kracht as one of his fathers (in English) [3]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Visitando el Mock Up Center de Airbus in Toulouse. In: Desde El Patio (private webpage on aviation-related topics in Spanish). Retrieved January 12, 2019 . Incl. Photo documentation
  2. ↑ The Team for your success - Barbara Kracht. In: BKH Crisis Communications (company website). Retrieved January 12, 2019 . Brief CV B. Kracht
  3. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 31, No. 45, March 6, 1979.
  4. ^ Lecture by the Frankfurt magistrate M3 / 2016
personal data
SURNAME Crash, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2002
Place of death Kirchweyhe near Bremen