Fritz Pullig

Fritz Pullig (* 1887 in Betzdorf / Westerwald ; † 1963 in Mainz ) was a German aviation pioneer.

Life

Pullig spent some time in France, where he got to know the then well-known aviation pioneers, and then came to Bonn .

After doing his military service there with Infantry Regiment No. 160, he built his own flying machine. The first attempt at flight in 1909 failed because the spar on which the tow rope was hanging broke. The plane jumped and was badly damaged. Fritz Pullig built a new "airplane" out of piano strings and wood in the Ermekeil barracks in Bonn , with which he attempted a second flight on July 17, 1909 on the Hangelarer Heide . Pulled by an "Adler" automobile, the machine rose about six meters and flew about 400 meters. This is considered to be the hour of birth of the Hangelar airfield , Germany's oldest airport. One of the witnesses of this flight attempt was Gerhard Fieseler .

Fritz Pullig moved back to his home in the Westerwald and successfully participated in car races. In 1912 he became a motorized pilot and was already a flight instructor from 1913. Like many of his generation, he took part in two world wars as a soldier. After the Second World War, he turned to writing and his 30 novels achieved large editions. In the early 1950s he was a car tester in Frankfurt / Main and tested over 345 types of cars.

In 1963 he died suddenly of cardiac death behind the wheel of his car in a garage in Mainz.