Ferdinand Cavallar from Trench Jump

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Ferdinand Cavallar von Grabensprung (disambiguation) .

Ferdinand Ritter Cavallar von Grabensprung (born March 15, 1886 in Aussig an der Elbe , Kingdom of Bohemia ; † July 10, 1952 in Vienna , Austria ) was an Austro-Bohemian officer and aviation pioneer in the Austro-Hungarian Army , under whose leadership on June 10, 1913 the first Austrian Telefunken radio station was built into the Etrich flying machine Amazone . Furthermore, as the commander of the test department in Fischamend, he carried out the first flight with a perfect air-to-ground radio link. He was the brother of the military knight Maria Theresa Wilhelm Cavallar von Grabensprung and was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown III in the First World War . Class excellent.

He is considered to be one of the most successful flight pilots in the kuk aviation troops .

Life

Field pilot Ferdinand von Cavallar

Captain Ferdinand Ritter Cavallar von Grabensprung came from an old Austrian family of officers. At that time, the noble family of the von Cavallar family was mainly based in Bohemia and Moravia, but also in Istria, Lower Austria, Hungary and Silesia. Ferdinand belonged to the Bohemian branch of the family.

Ferdinand von Cavallar started his military career after graduating from the military academy at the Austro-Hungarian War School in 1906 as a lieutenant in the 92nd Infantry Regiment. In 1911, already as a first lieutenant, he was assigned to the 90th Infantry Regiment (1st Battalion).

At the beginning of 1913 he was called up to the airship department and completed his pilot training. As early as 1914 he was appointed commander of the test department in Fischamend and in the same year assigned to Flieger-Company 5 as a field pilot.

During the First World War , von Cavallar was a pilot of Flieger-Firma 2 (he became its commander in 1915) and Flieger- Firmen ("Flik") 47 / F, mainly in Villach and Ajdussina . He successfully fought against Italians and Serbs and carried out observation flights on the Eastern Front. For his actions during the Serbian campaign in 1914 he was awarded the Military Merit Cross of the Order of the Iron Crowns III. Class awarded.

In August 1916, von Cavallar became the commandant of the flight officer school in Wiener Neustadt . Then in 1917 he was appointed commander of Flieger-Firma 47.

Towards the end of the war, Ferdinand von Cavallar was appointed as an air force officer at the command of the aviation troops . Subsequently, on August 26, 1918, he was called up to the War Ministry and took over a position as commander of Department 5 /. One month later he was appointed commander of the battle squadron in the 11th Army Corps.

After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , he became the leader of the German-Austrian air traffic station in Reichenberg . In December 1918 he was also assigned to the staff at the command of the German-Austrian air force in Vienna as a technical assistant until he was finally relieved of all his offices on August 12, 1919 due to his now Czechoslovak nationality.

On July 30, 1950, the Austrian Aero Club was re-established with the approval of the Allies. The new ÖAeC, with field pilot Major a. D. Ferdinand Cavallar von Grabensprung as the first president of the post-war period, campaigned loudly for the regaining of Austrian air freedom and started an advertising campaign with the slogan: "Give us our aviation again!" In doing so, he expanded the usual agendas of the sports association and supported the Austrian government in its aviation interests.

In 1951 Major Ferdinand von Cavallar was appointed honorary president of the Austrian Aero Club Glider Pilot Association for life. In addition to his function as honorary president, he took over the representation of the Ö.Ae.C.-SV abroad, in particular the dealings with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in Paris , with which its name was respected, transferred. Von Cavallar was also the new founder of the Vienna Aero Club.

Memorial plaque of Cavallar at the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof in Vienna.

Field pilot major a. D. Ferdinand Ritter Cavallar von Grabensprung died in 1952 at the age of 66 and is buried in Vienna's Matzleinsdorf cemetery . In his resting place there is a plaque of the Austrian Aero Club.

Two portraits by Ferdinand Cavallar von Grabensprung, works by the famous painters Oskar Alexander (1916) and Max von Poosch , are in the Army History Museum in Vienna.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See photo memorial plaque
2. ^ Early Aviation-exhibition 1: Die kuk aeronautische Anstalt Fischamend , 2011, page 83, ISBN 978-3-200-02309-3 .
3. ↑ Alexander Kustan and Gerald Penz: Hptm. Max MACHER. (No longer available online.) Alexander Kustan and Gerald Penz, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 28, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ^ The K. and K. War School 1852-1902 . LW Seidel, 1903 ( google.at [accessed February 9, 2018]).
5. ↑ Reinhard Karl Boromäus Desoye: The kuk Luftfahrttruppe - The emergence, development and organization of the Austro-Hungarian Army Air Force 1912–1918 . diplom.de, 2000, ISBN 978-3-8324-2914-0 ( google.at [accessed on June 28, 2017]).
6. ↑ Paolo Varriale: Austro-Hungarian Albatros Aces of World War 1 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78096-115-6 ( google.at [accessed June 28, 2017]).
7. ↑ AT-OeStA / KA NL 567 (B) CAVALLAR von GRABENSPRUNG, Ferdinand, 1886.03.15-1952.08.10 (inventory). Retrieved October 30, 2017 . 
8. ↑ MMag. phil. Barbara Wogritsch: Air traffic controllers in Austria. The story of a professional group. In: University of Vienna (Ed.): Master's thesis . Vienna October 2008, p. 262 .
9. ^ Fritz Polcar et alii: Circular 1951 no. 8 from the Austrian Aero Club. January 20, 1951. Retrieved June 28, 2017 .