Fritz Horn (pilot)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fritz Horn (born December 13, 1896 in Brandenburg (Havel) ; † May 2, 1963 in Mosigkau (?) ) Was a pilot and pioneer in civil aviation .

Life

He was born as the fourth child of the woodworker Friedrich Horn. After attending elementary and middle school, he began an apprenticeship as an electrical mechanic in 1911. After graduating in 1914, he found a job as a fitter at Hansa & Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke AG , where he was soon transferred to the airport there as a fitter . There he had the first opportunity in 1915 to fly as a passenger in an Etrich Taube . In 1916, Horn moved to the branch of AGO Flugzeugwerke in Berlin-Johannisthal . There he received his draft and served as a chief fitter on a field airfield. After the end of the First World War he worked in 1919 with the border pilots. There he taught himself to fly and was allowed to do workshop flights a little later.

In 1921 he moved again, this time to Königsberg to Lloyd Ostflug. There he received his license No. 54 as a commercial pilot from the Ministry of Transport, after he had repaired and repatriated a company aircraft that had landed in Lithuania. In January 1922 Horn got a job as a foreman at Junkers in Dessau and was dismissed a little later as head of the aircraft yard in Danzig . There he was involved in setting up the Danzig – Warsaw – Lviv airline and some flight routes to the east. In 1923 Horn moved to Budapest on behalf of Junkers, where he worked for the airline Aeroexpress as a foreman and pilot until 1925.

In the same year he went back to Dessau and took a Junkers G 23 (WNr. 843, registration S-AAAK) there from June 20 to 25, 1925 on the so-called seven-state flight Berlin / Tempelhof − Danzig − Malmö − Copenhagen − Zurich − Vienna −Berlin / Tempelhof, which only passed through six states. Over the next two years, Horn worked internationally as a specialist for Junkers in Portugal, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. In 1927 he returned to Budapest and helped set up the Bunavad airline. In total, he set three world records. During one of his stopovers in Dessau on April 24, 1927, he flew a combined distance and endurance world record with a Junkers G 24 . With a payload of 1000 kg, he flew 2020 km at 140 km / h average speed in 14 h 23 min 45 s. In the same year he officially received the title of flight captain.

From 1929 to 1937 he lived in China in order to set up the civil "Eurasia flight service" on behalf of Lufthansa . During this time he flew 75,000 kilometers as a pilot. He then went back to Dessau in 1937, but shortly after moved to South Africa as an instructor for Junkers aircraft. At the beginning of the Second World War , Horn was interned with his family. In 1944 Horn was released in exchange for an exchange and went back to Dessau, where he first came into contact with this new type of drive while building jet turbines. After the end of the war, he was temporarily appointed mayor of Mosigkau by the American occupying forces.After Dessau had become part of the Soviet occupation zone, he returned to the Junkers factory and set up a department for mechanical and hydraulic tests with several other former employees. In October 1946 he was brought with his family and other Junkers employees as part of the Ossawakim operation to Podberesje in the Soviet Union , where in OKB -1 as deputy head of Department 4 for mechanical and hydraulic tests, which had been dismantled and also sent , to work.

In 1953 Horn returned to the GDR and became technical director of the Dresden aircraft factory, which was under construction, as well as organizational director of the connected airport . From July 1, 1955 until his retirement in autumn 1959, he held the position of director for flight operations and flight safety in Berlin-Schönefeld . In 1956/57 he traveled again to the Soviet Union to look after the participants in the GDR's first commercial pilot course at the “ Aeroflot Higher Aviation School ” in Ulyanovsk .

literature

  • Rudi Neuendorf: "Papa" Horn . In: Aviator Calendar of the GDR 1982 . Military Publishing House, Berlin 1981, p. 79-86 .
  • Jörn Lehweß-Litzmann: The founders of GDR aviation . Military Publishing House, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-360-02703-0 .

Honors

A street at Berlin Brandenburg Airport was named after Fritz Horn.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Schmitt: Junkers and his planes. Transpress, Berlin, 1986, ISBN 3-344-00065-9 , pp. 101-102
  2. ↑ Karl Morgenstern (dpa): Pilots with party book In: Spiegel online from September 10, 2008
  3. ^ Günter Schmitt: Junkers and his aircraft , Transpress, Berlin, 1986, ISBN 3-344-00065-9 , p. 103 and p. 122
  4. ↑ Dmitri Alexejewitsch Sobolew: German traces in Soviet aviation history. Mittler, Hamburg; Berlin; Bonn, 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0675-0 , p. 268 "List of German aircraft, engine and equipment specialists who worked in Soviet plants and locations from 1946 to 1953/1954."
  5. ^ Franz Spur: Military transport aircraft Dessau – Dresden. A contribution to the 35-year history of the GDR transport aviation. AeroLit, Diepholz 2002, ISBN 3-935525-08-7 , pp. 15-17
personal data
SURNAME Horn, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Papa Horn (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg (Havel)
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1963
Place of death Mosigkau