Johann Pittner

Johann Pittner (1940)

Johann Pittner (born December 17, 1887 in Vienna , † September 16, 1956 there ) was an Austrian aviation pioneer and designer , writer and president of the Austrian Aviation Association. His scientific focal points include air traffic and the transport industry .

Life

Johann Pittner, son of the large wagon owner and transport company Karl Pittner and his wife Maria Pittner, studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University and philosophy at the University of Vienna . After interrupting his studies, he switched to the natural sciences subjects traffic geography, economic geography, meteorology and geology with the special subject traffic sciences. He completed this with a doctorate at the Technical University in Stuttgart . Since then he has been in close contact with Carl Pirath, the most important international traffic scientist .

In the first years of his university days, Johann Pittner came into closer contact with the Austrian pioneer of flight technology Wilhelm Kress with the beginnings of flight technology and was his employee until his death.

Johann Pittner was appointed editor of the entire written estate of Kress. From this estate and with the consent of his widow, the most valuable models were handed over to the Technical Museum in Vienna and Munich upon request .

activities

Johann Pittner was actively involved in the development and work of flight technology during the pioneering days. It was the circle next to Wilhelm Kress, Franz Wels and Adolf Warchalowski with whom he made the first flight in 1910. At the same time he made practical experiments in motorless flight (gliding and gliding) on Semmering with an airplane that he had converted himself.

In 1909 it was published for the first time in the magazine Flug- und Motorsport of the Austrian Aviation Technical Association and in daily newspapers. Johann Pittner later became a member of the editorial committee and received first prize in a reading tender by the Ministry of Education for schools and published the first parts of the Kress biography.

As a committee member of the Austrian Aviation Technical Association and a member of various working committees, Johann Pittner took part in the establishment of the aeromechanical laboratory at the Vienna University of Technology and in the construction of Aspern Airport .

During the First World War , scientific studies were carried out, particularly on the biological function of flight in insects and on the use of recoil propulsion (jet propulsion) for aircraft.

With the collapse of 1918, all of this work was ruined and his family lost their fortune due to the inflation that followed.

From 1923 he worked as executive vice-president of the Austrian Aviation Technical Association on the rebuilding of Austrian aviation and founded the magazine Flugzeug und Yacht , later the magazine Flug . As the organ of all flight organizations with the official communications of the Federal Ministry for Trade and Transport (Luftamt), which he led from 1923 to 1934 as editor and chief editor and from 1925 the scientific correspondence Internationaler Presse Courier.

In 1927 Johann Pittner became president of the Austrian Aviation Technical Association.

In 1929/30 he headed the special courses for aircraft construction and the development of gliders organized by the Lower Austrian provincial government in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce (construction of 14 gliders in the Austrian Aviation Technical Association).

In 1932 Johann Pittner became a member of the Board of Trustees for Economic Efficiency of the Chamber of Commerce - Committee: Rationalization in Transport and Subcommittee: Cooperation in Transport under Gen. Dir. Ing. Sedlak and took over the air traffic unit in the context of the entire traffic system.

From this time on, he mainly dealt with work in the field of traffic science, especially the economic design of traffic and traffic development.

After the end of the Second World War , he tried to establish air traffic through cooperation between the individual states, but the turbulent times and economic conditions were not suitable for this.

Magazines and publications

• Flight and engine technology, 1909
• New Wiener Tagblatt , 1912
• Graz Daily Mail, 1912
• Deutsches Volksblatt, Vienna, Prager Union
• Austrian aviation magazine, 1912–1918
• Austrian Motor - The Flight, 1918 to 1920,
• Flight, 1920 to 1921, 1927 to 1934
• Flight and yacht, 1923 to 1927
• International Press Courier, 1925 to 1950
• Festschrift L'Ala d'Italia, 1933
• Development of Nordic economic areas with the help of aviation, 1939/1940
• Aviation in polar zones, 1941
• Austrian economist, 1950 to 1951
• The industry, 1950 to 1951

Individual evidence

1. ^ Austrian History in Space, page 7, accessed on March 20, 2010