Ferdinand Schulz (glider pilot)

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Ferdinand Schulz, 1927

Ferdinand Schulz (born December 18, 1892 in Pissau / Waldensee , Warmia , † June 16, 1929 in Stuhm ) was a German pioneer of gliding . With the simplest, self-made gliders, he managed record flight times in the upwelling of the dunes of Rossitten . In 1927 he held all world records in gliding. He contributed significantly to a wide enthusiasm for gliding at home and abroad. A bilingual monument was erected in 1998 in Nida (Lithuania) ( Nidden ).

Life

Ferdinand Schulz was born on December 18, 1892 in Pissau in Warmia / East Prussia as the son of a teacher and also took up this profession. Drawn into the First World War as an infantryman , after being wounded twice, he asked to be transferred to the air force. Once this was accomplished in 1917, he flew up to the end of the war Halberstadt - attack aircraft with 160 hp, award-winning leader was a squadron.

After his discharge from military service, he worked as a teacher at a primary school and built the self-designed hang glider FS1 on the side. With the further developed FS2 he traveled to the second Rhön competition on the Wasserkuppe in 1921 and then built the glider FS3 with a lattice framework. Since the aircraft was not accepted by the Technical Commission at the fourth Rhön in 1923 for reasons of strength, it flew there out of competition.

He discovered the suitability of the dunes near Rossitten for gliding and founded a gliding school there, which later belonged to the Rhön Rossitten Society . His most famous student was Günther Groenhoff .

He became the technical and sporting director of the West Prussian Aviation Association founded in May 1925 in Marienburg . In 1927 he renewed his powered flight license and used a GMG high-decker to advertise aviation sports, and from the beginning of 1929 also became the first powered flight instructor for the Academic Aviation Group in Danzig , which in 1927 had named its Dz 3 school glider "Uncle Ferdinand" in his honor . On June 16, 1929, on the occasion of the inauguration of a war memorial above the market square in Stuhm , he was supposed to do a lap of honor with a motorized airplane and throw a wreath. When approaching Stuhm am Hintersee, the strut of a wing broke. The plane crashed into the market square. Schulz and his co-pilot Bruno Kaiser were killed. The tomb of "Icarus of East Prussia" is in the Lidzbark Warmiński cemetery .

Services

On May 11, 1924, during the 2nd coastal flight competition in Rositten, Schulz set a long-term flight record in gliding on his "broomstick box " at 8:42 hours.
  • May 11, 1924: With the FS3 , nicknamed Besenstielkiste, Ferdinand Schulz flew a world best in continuous flight at 8:42 hours at the 2nd coastal flight competition in Rossitten. (Like his FS2 in 1921, his FS3 was not approved in 1923 because of safety complaints at the Rhön competition.)
  • October 1925: Schulz started with the Moritz - a further development of the Vampyr - at the Soviet 3rd All Union gliding competition in the Crimea and set two new records: the long-term flight record (12:07 h) and the high-altitude flight record (435 meters).
  • July 3, 1926: Endurance flight world record for two-seater in Rossitten with the Coethen over 9:21 h
  • May 3, 1927: With the West Prussia , Schulz set a commute record of 455.8 km in 14:07 h and a speed record (10 km with an average of 54.45 km / h) at the 4th coastal flight competition in Rossitten. In addition, he achieved a height record of 652 meters in Grunau / Silesia (today Jeżów Sudecki ).

Honors

literature

  • Karl Anders and Hans Eichelbaum: Dictionary of Aviation , Quelle & Meyer , Leipzig 1937
  • Aloys and Josef Sommerfeld: He flew the broomstick box: Glider pilot Ferdinand Schulz from the pioneering days of German gliding , Schild, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-88014-079-0
  • A. Wilhelm Neuberger: The engineering school for aviation technology , Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3051-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f F. Weinholtz, W. Steinmann: Ferdinand Schulz, an East Prussian glider pilot . In: aerokurier . No. 3 , 1990, p. 58, 115 .
  2. ↑ Home letter of the Heilsberg district community No. 17 (2016), pp. 93–95
personal data
SURNAME Schulz, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pioneer of gliding in East Prussia, holder of numerous world records
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Pissau , Warmia
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1929
Place of death Stool