Heinrich Haas (pilot)

Honorary grave Heinrich Haas Trier main cemetery

Heinrich Friedrich Haas (born May 24, 1885 in Assenheim (Niddatal) , † October 1, 1910 in Wellen ) was a German captain , pilot and aviation pioneer .

Life

Heinrich Haas was a son of the butcher Georg Haas and his wife Anna Wilhelmine nee Bauer. After finishing school he made seafaring his profession. First he received training as a helmsman , then he became an officer in the merchant navy and finally he acquired his captain's license around 1909 . After Flugmaschine Wright GmbH was founded as a subsidiary of the Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft in Berlin in the spring of 1909 , Haas, who at that time was living with his parents in Friedrichroda , turned to the emerging aviation industry in Germany . To this end, he trained as a flying machine operator from Paul Engelhard , who on March 15, 1910 had received the pilot's license No. 3 of the German Airship Association and was chief pilot, flight instructor and works manager of the Wright Society on the Johannisthaler airfield . In Johannisthal he took part in weekly flight events and is said to have crashed on August 12, 1910, from which he only suffered abrasions. However, doubts are being raised about this version because, on the one hand, no flight accident is documented for the day and, on the other hand, he did not yet have a flight license and therefore he could only have been a passenger.

Haas passed his exam as the seventh Wright aviator on September 2, 1910 and received his No. 24 of the German Airship Association (DLV). At the same time, the student pilot Robert von Mossner took the flight test on a Wright Model A two-decker and received flight license No. 23. On the day on which he received his official flight license, Haas completed his first independent overflight from Johannisthal to Grünau , which lasted a total of 25 minutes. Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who himself was an enthusiastic supporter of aviation and 38th German pilot, shortly afterwards presented him with a specially donated cup of honor with the inscription “Cup of honor against vSKH Prince Heinrich of Prussia to the aviator H. Haas 12. X. 1910” . The trophy was auctioned off by the Haas family in 1999 for DM 5000 in Munich , together with a memory book created by the family .

Just 19 days later, after Haas had passed his exam, an advertisement from Flugmaschine Wright-Gesellschaft mbh appeared on September 21, 1910 with the slogan "Learn to fly on a Wright Airplane 3000 Mk. Training approx. 4 weeks" , during which lessons from the captains Engelhardt, Haas, Mente and von Mossner.

In the period from September 27 to October 1, 1910, the Aeroclub of Germany, also known as the Imperial Aeroclub, organized a competition for the first cross-country flight from Trier to Metz , which was also known as competition flying. The prize money advertised was a total of 25,000 marks , divided into 20,000 marks as 1st prize, 4,000 marks as second prize and, if applicable, 1,000 marks for pre- or post-flights. The prizes were to be distributed if the plane would fly from Trier to Metz without a stopover. A 160 acre area in Trier-Euren in the “Eurener Flur” on the left bank of the Moselle , which had been used as a parade ground since 1882 and was to serve as an anchor station for zeppelins from 1910 , was chosen as the launch site . The aim of the pilots, in addition to reaching the landing site on the cemetery island in Metz, was also to reach the highest possible altitude on their continuous flight.

Participants in the competition were Paul Engelhard, Robert Thelen , Robert von Mossner, Hans Vollmöller , Emile Jeannin and Heinrich Haas with starting number 4. Haas started his flight on Saturday, October 1st, 1910 and shortly afterwards reached the approx. 20 kilometers distant village waves when his Wright Flyer collapsed at a height of 150 meters and he fell. The machine crashed into a pear tree shortly behind the Wellener Kalkwerke and two medical officers who had followed the flying machine in an automobile and were on the spot immediately could only determine that Haas was dead. A mechanic from Trier, who arrived shortly afterwards at the scene of the accident, explained that a break in the chain guide had caused the accident. Further investigations later revealed that Heinrich Haas had himself to blame for the accident through his own carelessness and poor maintenance of the flying machine. He had used a handkerchief that was knotted together to connect two defective struts, which ultimately led to the components failing in flight. Haa's body was then taken to the Trier garrison hospital.

The winner of the flight competition was Emile Jeannin on an aviation biplane. Paul Engelhard and Robert Thelen each received 2,000 marks from the jury. Heinrich Haas had already planned for the Johannisthaler Flugwoche from October 9 to 16, 1910 and reported there with both Körting and Argus engines for the Wright aircraft. On October 7, 1910, the BZ wrote :

“The young pilot Heinrich Haas (25), who worked as an instructor for the Wright Society, distinguished himself with his particularly dashing ability right from the start of his unfortunately short flying career. He made splendid high-altitude and gliding flights and trained diligently for the cross-country flight competition, in which he had so tragically found death by repeatedly leaving the borders of the Johannisthaler Flugfeld and visiting the neighboring towns of Rudow, Glienicke, Grünau, etc. "

- BZ :

At that time Heinrich Haas was the 20th fatality in international aviation and only the third German to have died in a motor-powered airplane. The wave teacher and local chronicler Johann Morbach (1870–1950), who had seen the crash with his own eyes, described his impressions, which were later immortalized on a memorial plaque, with the words:

“Commemorative plaque for the aviator: At the end of September 1910, some aircraft manufacturers and aviators organized Germany's first test and competition flight between the cities of Trier and Metz along the Moselle. At that time we saw the first aircraft here with great interest, several of which were flying overhead every day. On Saturday, October 1st in the afternoon, Trier reported the rise of an airplane. Since the grape harvest was in progress when the weather was fine, the plane in the Moselle valley was followed by thousands of looks and calls from the happy winemakers. Suddenly a hundred-part scream! From a distance everyone believed that the plane had crashed next to the factory chimney in the lime works. However, it fell right next to it through a strong pear tree. Before the workers who rushed over had pulled the victim out from under the smashed aircraft, he was already dead. A plaque on the transformer house commemorates the accident of the aviator Heinrich Haas. "

- Johann Morbach :

Memorial plaque Heinrich Haas in waves

Heinrich Haas was buried on October 4, 1910 in the Trier main cemetery in a single election grave. The cost of the burial was borne by the city of Trier and today the grave is an honorary grave. In place of the former memorial plaque at the crash site, a white stone tablet made of marble with an inscription was attached to the stairway to the community center in waves.

literature

• Heinz Monz (Ed.): Haas, Heinrich , In: "Trier Biographical Lexicon" , WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier 2000, ISBN 3-88476-400-4 , p. 150 f.

Web links

• Entry on Heinrich Haas in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database
• Postcard competition flying Trier - Metz from 25th September to 2nd October 1910 under the direction and the protectorate of the Kaiserl. Aeroclubs, Berlin. Retrieved February 10, 2020 . 
• "Heinrich Haas only had the flight machine operator certificate No. 24 for 30 days" . In:Issue 29 of the series of documentation on the Berlin-Johannisthal airfield 1909–1914. Alexander Kauther, Paul Wirtz, 2011,accessed February 10, 2020. 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} birth certificate no. 19/1885, registry office Assenheim, secondary birth register 1881–1885, page 190 (HStAM inventory 924 no. 17). (JPG; 239 KB) In: Hessisches Landesarchiv - Personenstandsarchiv Hessen. Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, accessed on February 18, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} "Heinrich Haas only had the flight machine operator certificate No. 24 for 30 days" , Alexander Kauther and Paul Wirtz (authors) 2011, ISBN 978-3-640-98740-5 , 36 pp . (PDF)
3. ↑ Paul Engelhardt Aviator, Contact !: The Story of the Early Aviators by Henry Serrano Villard, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York in the Google Book Search
4. ^ Aviators Certificates - Germany. In: gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved February 11, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Alexander Kauther, Paul Wirtz: "Heinrich Haas only had flight machine operator certificate No. 24 for 30 days". In: grin.com. 2011, accessed February 11, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Lt. Heinrich Haas Aviator, Contact !: The Story of the Early Aviators by Henry Serrano Villard, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York in the Google Book Search
7. ^ Trier October 1, 1910, Flugsport magazine - year 1910: Aviation, ballooning, airships, powered flight, gliding, gliding and model flight in the Google book search by Carl Oskar Ursinus , editorial and publishing house Flugsport, Frankfurt am Main March 1, 2019, 811 S.
8. ^ Database of cultural assets in the Trier region. In: kulturdb.de. September 21, 2018, accessed February 11, 2020 . 
9. ^ Trier airfield yours. In: mil-airfields.de. Retrieved February 11, 2020 .