Helmut Reichmann

Helmut Reichmann (* December 23, 1941 ; † March 10, 1992 ) was a German glider pilot , three-time glider world champion and, together with Barron Hilton, founder of the Barron Hilton Cup . Since 1989 he has been professor of art (subject "experimental plastic") at the Saar College of Fine Arts and in the 80s professor of design at the Saarland University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken in the product design department and member of Akaflieg Saarbrücken.

Life

Reichmann began training as a glider pilot in 1958 as a teenager and within a few years became one of the best and best-known German glider pilots. In 1965 he was German junior champion, 1968, 1971 and 1973 German champion, 1970 and 1974 world champion in the standard class (1970 with the LS1-c and 1974 with the prototype LS2 from Rolladen Schneider) and in 1978 world champion in the FAI-15 -Meter class (with the SB 11 of the Akaflieg Braunschweig ).

In addition, he coached the German national team from 1973 and was the author of the two books Streckensegelflug (emerged from his sport-theoretical dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Karlsruhe) and Gliding - the practical training that is still one of the standard works for training to become a glider pilot.

The Federal President awarded him the silver laurel leaf on May 14, 1971. On July 2, 1979, he was awarded the Saarland Order of Merit.

On March 10, 1992, Helmut Reichmann had a fatal accident during national team training in a collision with another aircraft in the southern French Alps . Reichmann was one of the initiators of the Marpingen state gliding performance center , operated by the Saarland aerospace association, Aeroclub Saar, which was named after him after his death.

Quote

“The desire for free movement in space, the old dream of flying, has surely found its best fulfillment in gliding. For the glider pilot, nature reveals a world that seemed inaccessible decades ago. A world of tremendous forces, gentle or wild, great and mysterious. He allies with her, flies in her, tries to fathom her and to use her dynamic. The burden of everyday life remains far below, appears small and insignificant, the wings set free. "

- Helmut Reichmann

Works

• Distance gliding . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-613-02479-3
• Gliding. The practical training . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-87943-660-6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ More stable than steel . In: Der Spiegel . No.  31 , 1978, p. 122 ( online ).
2. ↑ Information given to the Bundestag by the Federal Government - printed matter 7/1040 - of September 29, 1973, Annex 3 (this contains all the silver laurel leaf awards made up to 1973), page 54
3. ^ Announcement of awards of the Saarland Order of Merit . In: Head of the State Chancellery (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Saarland . No. 27 . Saarbrücker Zeitung Verlag und Druckerei GmbH, Saarbrücken July 20, 1979, p. 630 ( uni-saarland.de [PDF; 641 kB ; accessed on May 29, 2017]).
4. ↑ What is gliding anyway? (No longer available online.) Weissenhorn aerial sports group, archived from the original on August 29, 2011 ; Retrieved February 27, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.