Franz Kneer
Franz Kneer (born May 31, 1895 in Kempten (Allgäu) , † April 25, 1935 near Hallgarten (Rheingau) ) was a German pilot and aviation enthusiast.
Life
Kneer began his professional career in 1912 in Munich as an intern at the German aircraft manufacturer Flugmaschinen-Werke Gustav Otto . During the First World War , Kneer flew with the Bavarian Air Force (see picture on the left) in different uses. After the end of the war, Kneer worked as chief pilot for Bayer from 1919. Air Lloyd. Kneer's aviation career led him to the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers in 1923 . First used in the Soviet Union in 1923 , he demonstrated a Junkers F 13 in Junín ( Argentina ) in 1924 . At the flight festival in San Fernando, he took 2nd place. In 1926 he was used on the route Córdoba - Cochabamba .
With a Junkers W34 he set a new world record on November 7th, 1928.
In June of the same year he was commissioned with the transfer of aircraft from the Junkers factories to Afghanistan . In 1929 he received the Junkers flight captain diploma .
Kneer took part in the European sightseeing flight in Orly ( Paris ) with an A 50 D-1683 and took 17th place here.
After a few more years as a flight captain , Kneer had an accident on April 25, 1935 in bad weather with a Junkers Ju 52 / 3m mail machine, registration D-AJYR of Deutsche Lufthansa (see picture on the left), after touching a tree by air from Berlin via Cologne Frankfurt near Hallgarten in the Rheingau . Kneer died at the scene of the accident, while the rest of the crew, the chief flight engineer Franz Pfeil and the radio operator Kurt Heinicke, succumbed to their injuries a few days later. A memorial on the hill, called Hallgarter Zange , commemorates this accident (see picture on the right). In contrast to the information on the monument, Stephanie Zibell speaks in her book "Rheingaueschichten" (Frankfurt a. Main, 2009) about a flight from Berlin via Frankfurt to Cologne. It refers to the accident report of the Deutsche Lufthansa AG from May 10, 1935. Kneer had made the decision to go on a visual flight in a position parallel to the Hallgart pincers. He turned and flew south towards the Rhine. The collision occurred on the northern slope of the mountain.
Honor
In the city of Magdeburg a street ( Kneerstraße ) was named after him at times .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kneer, Franz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kempten (Allgäu) |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1935 |
| Place of death | near Hallgarten (Rheingau) |