Aviation in Austria

The aviation in Austria began in the second half of the 18th century and had during many years until today both in research and development as well as in business one can hardly be exaggerated importance.

history

Empire of Austria and Austria-Hungary

Balloons

The principle of the hot air balloon was discovered by the Jesuit priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão in Portugal and demonstrated it to King John V of Portugal on August 8, 1709 . The chemist Henry Cavendish from England, on the other hand, discovered the fact that hydrogen is lighter than air. The first ride of a hot air balloon ( Montgolfière ) with human passengers took place on November 21, 1783.

Also at the end of 1783, Alois von Beckh-Widmanstätten experimented in Vienna with hot-air balloons made of paper, initially in closed rooms. In the spring of 1784 he made his first attempt outdoors on the Wieden .

Johann Georg Stuwer , a pleasure fireworker based in Vienna, tried at the same time to ascend with a correspondingly large hot air balloon and a gondola for four to six people - secured with ropes. In the Prater of Vienna he rose for the first time on July 6, 1784. On the third ascent on August 25, the safety rope broke and the balloon drove north over the Prater meadows and the Danube .

In 1791, the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard , coming from Prague , made several commercial trips in a gas balloon filled with hydrogen. The start on August 2nd was also observed by Emperor Leopold II. In Prague, Count Joachim Sternberg was the first Austrian to undertake a voluntary flight on October 31, 1790.

Animated by these demonstrations, the Swiss Jakob Degen, who had been living in Vienna since early childhood, wanted to make the balloon steerable. He combined a swing-wing aircraft with a gas balloon and on November 13, 1808 rose for the first test flight from the fireworks meadow in the Prater. On September 6, 1810, he presented his development to Emperor Franz I in Laxenburg . It took an hour from the castle to Vösendorf .

On September 22nd, 1867, engineer C. A. Mayrhofer from Upper Austria presented the “War Observation Balloon” in Linz on the Danube . A ring-shaped and a spherical balloon jointly carried the observer's gondola equipped with a cable winch. The cable winch made it possible to raise the gondola like an elevator car or to lower it to the ground.

Viktor Silberer from Vienna bought a spherical balloon in Paris in 1882. He made the first ascent on August 11, 1882, followed by 187 more by 1887. He also contributed to the popularity of ballooning with lectures and exhibitions. In the Prater on the fireworks meadow he had a balloon hall and a tool shed set up. He also had his own gas line for filling the balloon. He set about founding the first Viennese aeronautical institute to offer balloon sport enthusiasts a meeting point. This earned him the reputation of an expert who was appointed the first director of a balloon pilot training course in the Austro- Hungarian Army . In 1901, together with Captain Franz Hinterstoisser, he founded the Vienna Aero Club as the umbrella organization for balloonists, which became the Austrian Aero Club in 1910 and which has kept records of all balloon trips and events it has organized since 1901.

Richard Knoller

Josef Valentin

On October 2, 1902, Richard Knoller and Josef Valentin , a secretary at ZAMG , reached a height of 6,810 meters with the 1,200 cubic meter "Jupiter" balloon from the Vienna Aero Club. In the next few years this was exceeded twice:

• June 4, 1903 - Doctor Josef Valentin - 7,280 meters
• July 5, 1905 - Doctor Anton Schlein - 7,800 meters

Otto Pollak and Doctor H. Jaschke, assistant at the Vienna University Observatory , started a balloon flight on June 3, 1909 at around 11 p.m. (presumably in Vienna) in order to be able to observe the total lunar eclipse that occurred that night undisturbed. The landing took place around five in the morning in Lassee in Marchfeld .

The Luftschiffahrt club was founded in Innsbruck ( Tyrol ) in 1910 . A fundraising campaign raised the money needed to buy a 2,200 cubic meter balloon. Archduke Josef Ferdinand came with his brother Archduke Heinrich Ferdinand and the balloon "Salzburg" on the occasion of the first ascent of the balloon, which was baptized "Tirol" on May 29, 1910. Due to the poor flight conditions, the two balloons landed on a snow field between Gerloswand and Thorhelm. The descent in Gerlostal and to Zell am Ziller took five hours .

In September 1910, the “Tirol” balloon from Innsbruck with a crew of three crossed the Zillertal Alps , the Hohe Tauern and the Großvenediger . The landing was in Windisch-Matrei .

The (probably) first balloon loss occurred on June 29, 1910 near Jablonicz-Nyitra. The "Hungaria II" balloon took off from the Military Aeronautical Institute and landed without any problems. After releasing the gas, the balloon envelope suddenly caught fire after a thud and burned completely. It is believed that the balloon skin, filled with residual gas, came to rest on a cigarette that was still smoldering and thrown away by the onlookers, and that it ignited.

Due to insufficient equipment, the first fatal accident occurred on December 26, 1911. Lieutenant Wilhelm Werner undertook a solo trip with Archduke Josef Ferdinand's "Salzburg" balloon in bad weather conditions at higher altitudes. After a few days, the balloon that landed on Schafkar near Gmunden was found. The lieutenant did not survive the descent into the valley because he was wearing too light clothing.

In 1912, the then university lecturer Victor Franz Hess participated in a series of balloon ascents in various free balloons (filled with either luminous gas or hydrogen), which led to the discovery of what he called “cosmic radiation” (today : Cosmic Radiation ), which later earned him the Nobel Prize.

On March 17, 1912, Archduke Josef Ferdinand and Captain Wilhelm Hoffory celebrated ballooning anniversaries together. The Archduke wanted to celebrate his 80th and the captain his 100th balloon flight with a trip together. The start was in Linz on the Danube, due to bad weather the trip had to be broken off at Herzogenburg around noon .

Archduke Josef Ferdinand wanted to celebrate his 100th balloon flight with a balloon flight that started on August 31, 1913 in Linz. But this ended after an hour's drive at Sankt Georgen in Upper Austria.

With the assassination of the heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife, the Austrian Aero Club lost its protector and one member. According to the statutes of the Aero Club, all balloons were handed over to the army administration after the outbreak of war. No private or sporting balloon rides were undertaken during the war.

Highlights

• Archduke Josef Ferdinand's 30th balloon trip led from Linz to Dieppe together with Captain Wilhelm Hoffory (50th trip) . This meant the Austrian distance record of 984 kilometers.
• Commercial Councilor Camillo Castiglione went on a night trip with his “Excelsior” balloon. On May 13, 1911, the start was at 7.30 p.m. in the Vienna Prater At 05:40, the landing took place near Rathenvalde north of Pirna in the Free State of Saxony . 390 kilometers were covered in ten hours.
• Lieutenant Max Macher and frigate lieutenant Heinrich Huss set off from Fischamend at around 9 p.m. for a training run. The Szczecin Lagoon came into view around 3 p.m. the next day. Due to adverse weather conditions, you did not risk the crossing and landed after 19 hours of driving.
• The Austrian long-term record in ballooning was set by Lieutenant Max Macher on March 18, 1914. After starting in Fischamend at 10 a.m., it was driven twice across Lake Neusiedl and crossed Vienna at around 5 p.m. and Prague at around 11 p.m. It landed west of Trelleborg in Sweden after 31 hours and 12 minutes and a distance of 840 kilometers. For Austria, this trip meant the first solo trip of a balloon over sea, the first sea flight of a balloon and a new Austrian long-term record flight of a free balloon.

Airship travel

While the Montgolfier brothers proved that ballooning was possible, the officer of the French engineering corps Meusnier of the Academiedes Sciences, who also came from France, presented the plans for a steerable airship in 1874. Although the plans already contained everything that was necessary for the operation of the airship, only the motor necessary for the propulsion had not yet been invented.

Paul Haenlein , born in Mainz on October 17, 1835 , presented a model of an airship powered by a clockwork spring motor in the fruit hall in Mainz . Another airworthy model was already larger, and he exhibited it in the Sofiensaal in Vienna from October 1871 and used it to organize sightseeing flights.

Surrounded by a 24-member consortium funded airship " Aeolus ", driven by a Lenoir - gas engine , completed on 13 December 1872 the first ride in Brno successfully. On the second trip the next day, it became apparent that a lot of gas and thus lift had already been lost. Nevertheless, the airship was to be transferred to Vienna immediately. But the propeller was already damaged during the first flight maneuver by an inexperienced locksmith. No further flight attempts were made with the Haenlein steering airship.

According to the plans of the Austrian David Schwarz , the first rigid airship with a 0.2 millimeter thick aluminum outer skin was built in Lüdenscheid near Berlin by the industrialist Carl Berg - who also took over the financing - in his aluminum factory. The telegram informing the designer David Schwarz of the start of gas filling after more than two years of construction caused a stroke , from which the 46-year-old died. Then his wife Melanie took over the last work up to the first ascent on November 3, 1897 on the Tempelhofer Feld .

Due to technical problems with the drive, the maneuverable airship had to make an emergency landing, where it was badly damaged. The viewers angry about this mishap took over the rest of the destruction work.

The Renner family of artists (father Franz and sons Alexander and Anatol) got to know airships while performing in Canada and built their own in Unterpremstätten near Graz . Johann Puch AG only took on the construction of the nacelle and the final assembly . It was presented to the public for the first time on September 26, 1909 during the Graz autumn fair above the trotting arena. Max Mayr noted in the “steirische Nahrungsmittel” 5/99 that the “first dirigible airship” had the following label: “Renner's ESTARIC steering balloon 1”. Anatol and Alexander were then 16 and 18 years old. Alexander was successful as a fighter pilot in the First World War . (Mayr: "As early as 1907, Alexander and Anatol made flight attempts with a glider .")

On October 16, the airship was presented to the Viennese. Also in attendance were Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Leopold Salvator, Eugen and Rainer, to whom the three Renners were introduced after a successful demonstration. The next stop on the tour was Linz.

On the part of the Austrian military, which at that time did not yet have a dirigible airship, the Renners joked about the civilian competition, and they were prompted to have an even larger and technically improved airship built. The first flight of the airship "Graz" took place in 1910.

In Fischamend not only the Austro-Hungarian Military Aeronautical Institute was built , but also a private airship hangar at the end of 1910. Engineer Hans Otto Stagl and Lieutenant Franz Mannsbarth jointly designed a privately used airship, which at the time of its completion in 1910 was the largest impact airship in the world with a length of 91 m. Some of the propellers could be pivoted to improve maneuverability. In 1911, during the Austrian Flight Week in Wiener Neustadt, this airship carried out the first passenger air traffic in Austria. In 1914 operations had to be stopped for financial reasons and the airship had to be scrapped.

The project of an airship made of steel comes from Lieutenant L. Walach von Hallborn. He wanted to prevent the loss of lifting gas at great heights.

The Weingartner brothers from Vienna presented the model of an electrically powered airship at the Arsenal on May 19, 1910. Power was supplied via an electrical line. But the project was never realized.

After the event had been postponed several times, Count Zeppelin came to Vienna on June 9, 1913 with the airship "Sachsen", where he landed at Aspern Airport .

Glider and glider construction

Igo Etrich was sent to Berlin by his father Ignaz Etrich, who was interested in flight technology, to purchase gliding machines from the estate of Otto Lilienthal, who had died in an accident . Igo returned home to Oberaltstadt in the Trautenau district with a glider and a swing-wing airplane (the glider came to the Technical Museum Vienna after the First World War , the swing-wing airplane came to the German Museum , but burned at an exhibition).

In a workshop of the Etrichs, a glider was created in 1899, which was tested for the first time in April 1901, but with little success due to the poor aerodynamics. During another flight attempt there was an accident in which Igo was injured, and so it was decided (also due to lack of time) to find a suitable man to deal with the resulting problems and also to act as a pilot.

Wilhelm Kress , with whom the Etrich family was in contact, put them in touch with Franz Wels , who accepted the contract. In the literature he finally found a report on the flight properties of the seeds of the climbing plant species Zanonia macrocarpa from Java. Thereupon the Etrichs decided to build a new flying machine with the shape of this seed. The first attempts in 1903 were so satisfactory that a larger, man-carrying flying machine was constructed between 1905 and 1906. The Etrichs applied for a patent on March 3, 1905 for the new wing shape.

On October 6, 1906, after numerous unmanned test flights, Franz Wels undertook the first manned test flight with the glider, which was successful. Later attempts to motorize this flying machine failed because of the insufficient engine power.

Foreman Karl Illner already worked on the next improved version (called "Etrich-I") . Because of the better technical environment, they first moved to Vienna, where they received workshop space in the rotunda in the Prater and later to Wiener Neustadt.

In 1909, in order to strengthen the sport of gliding, a section of gliding was founded as a section of the Austrian Aviation Technical Association. At Semmering , a site that was suitable for the purposes of this section was, and on 13 February 1910, the first public demonstration took place here.

Even before the First World War, activities on the site came to an end. The meadow was too small for the increasing performance of the gliding machines, and the long journey from Vienna caused interest to decline.

Motor aircraft construction (civil)

Monument to the aviation pioneer Wilhelm Kress at the Wienerwaldsee

Monument to Eduard Nittner on Semmering

In 1898 at the age of 62, after various developments , Wilhelm Kress set out to design an aircraft that was to take off from the Wienerwaldsee . Because the engine was too heavy and too weak, the floats filled with water and the plane sank. Although he wanted to build a new aircraft from the recovered aircraft parts, lack of money forced him to stop the work and he turned to theoretical planning.

A Voisin biplane was ordered from the brothers Charles and Gabriel Voisin on July 1, 1907 by the brothers Maurice and Henri Farman , which was named Voisin-Farman I and, for unknown reasons, was converted into a three -decker after successful flights Properties badly hurt.

In 1909 this aircraft was sold to the “Wiener Syndikat für Organization von Schauflügen” and dismantled into a two-decker. On April 28, 1909, a show flying was to be held with Eugen Legagneux as a pilot on the floodplain in Vienna. However, to the disappointment of the audience, the aircraft did not take off and so it was donated to the Military Aeronautical Institute. Lieutenant Hans Hirsch was supposed to make the plane fit to fly again. By replacing iron parts with wooden structures, he saved around 100 kilograms in weight and was still unsuccessful. Finally the plane came to the Army History Museum .

Encouraged by Viktor Silberer , President of the Austrian Aero Club, and Captain Franz Hinterstoisser , Commander of the Military Aeronautical Institute, the City of Wiener Neustadt, under Mayor Franz Kammann, dedicated an area northwest of the city to an airfield on June 2, 1909, and decided to build hangars and other necessary facilities.

Igo Etrich (July 27) and engineer Hipssich moved into the first two airplane halls completed in July 1908, whose airplane was completed in the Daimler automobile factory. Daimler also built two of its own halls.

The first activities on the new airfield were driving tests and jumping in the air, but most of those involved were optimistic. Karl Illner, for example, undertook a new propeller that had been mounted on the subsequently motorized Etrich-Wels glider from 1905/1906 and suddenly took off about 40 meters and four meters high. After two modifications - another flight attempt took place on August 15 - the aircraft took off after a short run-up, but was damaged by a gust of wind on landing. Igo Etrich then used a new airplane for further experiments, the so-called “Praterspatz”, which rose from the ground for the first time on November 29, 1909. In 1909, Karl Illner began building the new Etrich II motorized aircraft , the "Taube", on behalf of Igo Etrich .

In Linz on the Danube in Upper Austria , the "Austrian Aviation Exhibition" took place between September 4th and 19th at the suggestion of Archduke Josef Ferdinand as President of the Upper Austrian Aviation Association .

Austria-Hungary saw the first truly flying aircraft on October 23, 1909 on the Simmeringer Haide. On his tour, which took him on to Budapest and Constantinople, the crosser of the English Channel, Louis Blériot, made a stop in Vienna and thus further fueled interest in aviation.

The Slovenian Edvard Rusjan undertook the monarchy's first successful powered flight with the self-constructed EDA I biplane in Mali Rojci on November 25, 1909 near Gorica / Görtz. He built this aircraft together with his brother Josip Rusjan in Vipava.

Captain Quoika came to Wiener Neustadt on a Bleriot plane to learn to fly. Baron Titi owned an aircraft of French origin, which the company Opel & Beyschlag in Vienna had in its program. The airfield in Wiener Neustadt had to be expanded; in the spring of 1910 there were already 13 hangars here.

Alfred Gerngroß , owner of the Gerngross department store on Mariahilfer Strasse , donated two prizes to stimulate the aviation enthusiasts' ambition. But only an Austrian pilot could win it. Engineer Adolf Warchalowski , sent to France by the Werner & Pfleiderer company to buy a Farman apparatus and learn to fly, was one of the two pilots who fought for this price. Engineer Vinzenz Wiesenbach entered - as a Luxembourger - out of competition with a converted Wright aircraft.

In order to win the first price (2,000 crowns ), a continuous flight of at least 15 minutes was required. Both pilots met this requirement. The second prize required a continuous flight of at least five minutes with one passenger. It is not clear whether the flight carried out on the same day with a passenger was successfully completed. In any case, on March 11, 1910, engineer Warchalowski again competed for the Gerngroß Prize. This time his sister-in-law Anna Warchalowski took his place as a passenger, making her the first female passenger in Austria.

Attempts to fly were not only made in Wiener Neustadt, they were also active in other parts of the monarchy. The painter Kornelius Hintner bought a flying machine in Berlin with which he attempted to fly. Adalbert Schmid, employed as a turner in a watch factory in Ebensee am Traunsee , built a flying machine himself. A committee was formed to raise the money for the engine. The pharmacist Gustav Payerl from Herzogenburg also built an airplane himself.

After his return from Paris, Alfred Ritter von Pischof, who was born in Vienna, developed a new car plan for Werner & Pfleiderer , which was further developed at the Wiener Neustadt airfield. After the first passenger flown on April 25, 1910, the first overland flight of an aircraft in Austria followed on May 9, 1910. Pischof covered a distance of 45 kilometers in a time of 41 minutes. Between 1911 and 1913 this car plan was built in Vienna, Paris and Budapest .

Around the same time, the engine-powered aircraft construction number 2, the “Taube”, designed by Igo Etrich and built by his foreman Karl Illner during the winter of 1909/10, came to Wiener Neustadt. The first take-off was on April 6, 1910, after which changes had to be made to the aircraft. During the next take-off, the landing gear was damaged. On April 12, a flight of 2.5 kilometers was successful. Since the previously used engine was too weak, a more powerful automobile engine from the Austrian Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was installed, which finally brought success.

Internationally increasing numbers of aircraft accidents led the "Fédération Internationale Aéronautique" FAI to set up generally applicable rules according to which pilots should be tested in all countries. On April 22, 1910, engineer Warchalowski was the first Austrian to take this examination. Engineer Alfred Ritter von Pischof and Karl Illner followed. Until 1918, military pilots and private pilots took their exams at the Austrian Aero Club , from which they also received their pilot's license .

Karl Illner undertook the first major overland flight in Austria with the Etrich pigeon on May 17, 1910. This led from Wiener Neustadt to Simmeringer Haide , where he landed after a 32-minute flight. The return flight took place in the late afternoon.

Between June 5 and 17, 1910, the first international flight meeting in Austria-Hungary took place in Budapest. This was organized by the Magyar Aero Club, 49 pilots - including a woman - took part.

As a further incentive for the aircraft designers and pilots, the newspaper “Die Zeit” advertised a price for a flight from Vienna to Tulln on the Danube and back. At the cost of 10,000 kroner, this distance had to be covered between sunrise and sunset with just a single landing in Tulln. The start had to take place on the Simmeringer Haide, at least one stretch had to lead across the Vienna Woods west of Vienna. The latest date to take this test was October 31, 1910. If several pilots succeeded in doing this by that day, the shortest time would apply to the Vienna (Simmeringer Haide) - Tulln section. It is not known whether anyone dared this adventure.

Since the Pischof-Autoplan had proven to be a successful model at the international flight meeting in Budapest, the Werner & Pfleiderer company, the Ganz & Co. company, the Manfred von Weiß ammunition works and the Danubius-Aktiengesellschaft decided to build a joint aircraft factory. The new company was entered in the commercial register in 1911 under the name “Österreichisch-Hungarian Autoplanwerke Ges.mb.H Vienna-Budapest and Paris”. Engineer Alfred Warchalowski was in charge of the Austrian, Oskar von Wahl was in charge of the Hungarian and Ritter von Pischof was in charge of the establishment to be established in Paris. The Pischof-Autoplan and the Warchalowski-Autoplan were produced. On May 15, 1914, the company was liquidated for lack of orders.

On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph I on August 18, 1910, engineer Warchalowski flew from the Wiener Neustadt airfield to Vienna, circled St. Stephen's Cathedral and returned to the starting point without stopping. On September 18, 1910, the emperor attended the third prize flying in Wiener Neustadt.

Also around this time, in early September 1910, the Daimler works in Wiener Neustadt delivered the first two Aeroplan engines. It was designed by engineer Ferdinand Porsche , who was technical director at the time. However, because they were too weak at 47.7 kilowatts (65 horsepower), they did not arouse much interest.

Another designer for aircraft engines was Otto Hieronimus . In 1908 he started at Laurin & Klement in Jungbunzlau to design an airplane engine, which was completed in 1910. A more powerful engine was designed between 1910 and 1913, which Werner & Pfleiderer in Ottakring produced in series.

A "Grand Prize" (20,000 crowns) was announced by the City of Vienna. This required the take-off on the Simmeringer Haide and landing on a certain field near the town of Horn in the Waldviertel ( Lower Austria ) as well as the return to Vienna within 24 hours. In his first attempt on October 3, 1910, Karl Illner failed with the Etrich pigeon in the fog. On October 10th, he fulfilled the conditions and was awarded the prize.

The first person to be killed in Austrian motorized aviation is Edvard Rusjan, who crashed on January 9, 1911 in bad weather while lying in front of Belgrade .

In 1911, however, the voices also became louder and louder calling for the imperial capital and residence city of Vienna to have their own airfield (and a second one for the monarchy), as the area on the Simmeringer Haide had previously only been used provisionally as a landing site. The Austrian Aero Club and the kk Flugtechnische Verein had various areas in Vienna and the vicinity of the city examined for their suitability, with one field near Schwechat having numerous advocates.

In order to be able to support aviation practitioners in Austria through trained theorists, the establishment of an aeronautical laboratory at the kk Technische Hochschule in Vienna was decided in January 1911 and approved by the Ministry of Education.

After the Wiener Flugfeld-Gesellschaft m. b. H, the airfield was built on an area near Aspern . By mid-May, a meadow with stable soil and hangars and other necessary buildings should be built from the arable land. As a result, aviation began to migrate from Wiener Neustadt to Vienna. As a result, the airfield in Wiener Neustadt was closed to civil aviation and leased to the military.

Up to now, aviation had mainly moved over flatlands, only the price advertised by a newspaper for the flight Vienna - Tulln - Vienna (1910) forced the pilots to fly over the Vienna Woods (the source leaves open whether anyone faced this challenge). On May 3, 1912 Oberleutnant Eduard Nittner managed a flight from Wiener Neustadt to Graz with an Etrich-Taube of the military , where he crossed an Alpine pass for the first time in Austria with the Semmering .

After lengthy negotiations with Lous Blériot, the Asperner Flugfeld-Gesellschaft was able to hire a young pilot from the Blériots flying school - Adolphe Pègoud - for aerobatic demonstrations. Archduke Leopold Salvator was among the audience.

Between April 19 and 26, 1914, the "sightseeing flight through Austria-Hungary for the shift price" took place. Georg and Heinrichschicht, factory owners in Aussig, gave the Austrian Aero Club and the kk Flugtechnischen Verein 100,000 crowns as prize money for various evaluations. The flight route headed for the entire national territory, but above all those cities were flown to, which had provided their own city prices. Only Austro-Hungarian aircraft and Austro-Hungarian pilots were eligible to participate.

• 1st stage: Aspern - Prague - Theresienstadt - Teplitz - Aussig - Theresienstadt - Brno - Aspern
• 2nd stage: Aspern - Raab - Budapest
• 3rd stage: Budapest - Aspern

Some of the pilots taking off took part under a pseudonym , because the army administration forbade the pilots of the army to participate. The participation of officers was seen as inappropriate.

The third flight meeting took place at Aspern Airport between June 21 and 29, 1914. During this event, Austro-Hungarian pilots set five recognized world records and ten national records despite international competition.

Military aircraft

• Balloons:

The first hot-air balloons came to the military through Field Marshal Josef Wenzel Radetzky von Radetz , who turned to the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry with a request to provide him with bomb-carrying balloons for the reconquest of Venice . The two lieutenants Josef and Franz von Uchatius were then commissioned to manufacture balloons with bombs. The first unarmed attempts took place on June 29, the first armed one on July 2. On August 22, 1849, the world's first air raid using a balloon bomb took place.

Venice was bombed from Mestre by the Austrian army . The balloons, about six meters in diameter, were made of paper and linen and carried bowls of glowing charcoal and greased cotton, which provided the hot air necessary for buoyancy. The bomb weighed about 25 kilograms and was hanging on a string. This was set on fire by a fuse after a predetermined flight time and the bomb was dropped. The accuracy of the target depended on the prevailing wind and weather conditions and could also pose a risk to your own soldiers if the conditions changed.

It is not clear to what extent these balloons were used against Venice. The effect was probably more psychological.

Viktor Silberer, the founder of the Vienna Aero Club (later the Austrian Aero Club) organized an exhibition on ballooning in the Rotunda in Vienna in 1888 . And this exhibition aroused high-level military personnel who had previously been skeptical of this new technology, but interest and, as a result, some officers were sent abroad to collect information.

On April 14, 1890, the first "Military Aeronautical Course" began with eight participants who had been selected from a large number of volunteer applicants. Viktor Silberer led the course as a civilian, the course location was the fireworks meadow in Vienna's Prater . One of the participants was Lieutenant Franz Hinterstoisser .

In 1891 another aeronautical course was held.

The parade ground next to the arsenal in Vienna was the location of the newly established airship department with all necessary facilities (balloon hall, material shed, plant for the production of hydrogen , chemical laboratory, accommodations for officers and men) . The first purely military training course was also held here by Lieutenant Josef Trieb and Franz Hinterstoisser (from August 20, 1893).

For the captive balloon departments, spherical balloons with a capacity of 600 cubic meters were purchased, the height of which was controlled by means of ropes. In strong winds, however, these were often depressed, so that from 1898 the elongated kite balloon constructed by the German August von Parseval and Captain Rudolf Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld was purchased and designated as M 98.

Thanks to transportable hydrogen gas generating devices and steel gas bottles, one was independent of luminous gas factories and their efficiency.

With the introduction of the first aircraft in the Imperial Army , the mobile field balloon divisions were dissolved and - in the assumption that the balloons only in the trench war divided the material on the fortress balloon departments - would be useful.

The year 1916 brought a reorganization of the aviation troops in the hinterland. The balloon departments were directly subordinate to the aviation troops. At the same time, the airship replacement battalion in Vienna and the replacement companies in Temesvar and Hainburg an der Donau were set up.

The increasing air strikes on the naval port in Pola and other coastal facilities led at the end of 1917 and at the beginning of 1918 to the establishment of homeland security companies with blocking balloons . These small spherical balloons (80 to 100 cubic meters) were left at heights of up to 3,000 meters. In addition, shorter ropes were attached to the tether ropes, which were blown sideways by the wind, making it even more difficult for the enemy aircraft to maneuver. In order to ensure a sufficient supply of gas, a gas factory was built in Pola in mid-1918.

• Airships:

Even the introduction of tethered observation balloons and free balloons had been carried out slowly and reluctantly in the Army, but the airships were even more hesitant and doubtful of their usefulness. One of the reasons was the finances, because you not only had to purchase the flying device, but also create the infrastructure necessary for its operation. Nevertheless, in 1908 four men were sent to the German Empire for the imperial maneuvers there.

Franz Hinterstoisser in particular, meanwhile already Lieutenant Colonel, Vice President of the Austrian Aero Club and former commander of the Austro-Hungarian Military Aeronautical Institute and member of this observation group, advocated the acquisition of airships for the army.

Commercial Councilor Camillo Castiglioni and General Director, Engineer Alexander Cassinone , both also Vice Presidents of the Austrian Aero Club , made the offers that were finally accepted by the Army Administration.

For reasons of space, however, the military aeronautical facility had to be relocated from the arsenal in Vienna. An offer from the mayor of Fischamend was accepted and in 1909 the construction of the necessary facilities (airship hangar, hydrogen gas factory, accommodations for teams and staff, workshops) was started. During the First World War, an airfield, an aircraft factory, repair workshops and the world's first propeller test bench (1917) were added.

The first two trained aeronauts in the Austro-Hungarian Army were Oberleutnants Franz Freiherr von Berlepsch and Franz Mannsbarth (both had also belonged to the observer group in the German Empire in 1908); they had been sent to Germany by the War Ministry to take the aeronautical examination.

• The first airship of the Austro-Hungarian Army was the k. u. k. Military airship MI (System Parseval), which was manufactured under license by the Österreichische Motor-Luftfahrzeuggesellschaft and made its maiden voyage on November 26, 1909. On board on this first trip was Ferdinand Porsche, director of the Daimler engine factory and engine designer, to personally monitor it.
• In addition to the license agreements for the Parseval airship, director Camillo Castiglione also negotiated the rights for the Lebaudy steering balloon ( k. U. K. Military airship M.II (Julliot-Lebaudy system )) with France . This was also built by the Österreichische Motor-Luftfahrzeuggesellschaft and flew for the first time on May 30, 1910.
• The kuk military airship M.III (Körting system) as the third airship was the result of the collaboration between the engineers Alexander Cassinone and Wilhelm Stratmann (both Austria-Hungary) and the German engineer Basenach. The first run took place on January 1st, 1911. It exploded on June 20, 1914 after being streaked by an airplane in Fischamend .
• Captain Friedrich Boemches from Pioneer Battalion No. 5 was the designer of the k. u. k. Military airship M.IV (System Boemches ). The first flight took place on April 16, 1912. After the successful acceptance runs, the airship was given to the army. No further trips were made.

• Airplanes:

The first aircraft of the Austro-Hungarian Army was the already mentioned biplane, which was unfit to fly after modifications and was donated to the military by the show flight syndicate.

A Wright biplane followed as a donation on October 19, 1909, which the industrialist Robert von Lieben made available to the army. In the spring of 1910 the army was given a Blériot apparatus and a Voisin double-decker came from the imperial councilor Josef Flesch.

The first aircraft acquired by the Army Administration itself on April 2, 1911 was an Etrich Taube built by the Lohner company. Soon after, a flying machine instruction department was set up and the systematic training of pilots began. Since the usability of the aircraft as a reconnaissance aircraft could be proven during the autumn maneuvers, the purchase of further aircraft was approved.

In addition to the Etrich pigeons, the Lohner arrow pilots, who were successful at sporting flight events, also joined the military in 1912. In the area of ​​the Danube Monarchy, the establishment of airfields and the development of air parks (locations in 1914: Fischamend, Wiener Neustadt, Görz, Mostar, Ujvidek, Krakow, Vienna-Aspern) began.

While it was relatively easy to establish a connection to the ground using a cable with the static balloons, this was not possible with aircraft. For this reason, the first tests with built-in radios were carried out in 1913. Documented, for example, on June 10, 1913, was an attempt by Captain Ferdinand Cavallar von Grabensprung , under whose direction a Telefunken radio station was installed in the Etrich Amazone flying machine .

At the beginning of the First World War, the air force only had Etrich pigeons and Lohner arrow fliers, since only Lohner was able to produce aircraft in series. In order to meet the increased demand, aircraft had to be purchased in Germany and initially German aircraft types had to be built under license . In the absence of training planes, officers were sent to Germany to be trained as pilots.

In the kuk naval shipyard in Pola, aircraft were also built for the navy on a small scale.

With the opening of new aircraft factories in 1915 there were already seven factories; a development in which Camillo Castiglione played a key role. About the Motor-Luftfahrzeug-Ges. m. b. H. he supplied the air force with aircraft. In Hungary he founded an aircraft factory in 1912, which manufactured Lohner reconnaissance planes and school double-deckers under license and, from 1915, also designs by engineer Ernst Heinkel.

In Austria, after the outbreak of war, he first founded the Austro-Hungarian Albatros-Werke Ges. M. b. H in Vienna-Stadlau and as the second plant in Austria the Phönix-Flugzeugwerke AG, also in Vienna-Stadlau.

Other aircraft plants that were built in Austria-Hungary during the war were

• Austro-Hungarian Aviation Aircraft Factory (Vienna-Heiligenstadt)
• Hungarian Lloyd aircraft and engine factory , (Budapest-Aszód)
• Hungarian Aircraft Works AG Ufag (Budapest-Albertfalva)
• Oesterreichische Flugzeugfabrik AG Oeffag (Wiener Neustadt)
• kuk Fliegerwerft Fischamend
• WKF Vienna body and aircraft factory Doctor W. v. Gutmann
• Magyar Általános Gépgyár (MÁG, Hungarian General Machine Factory, Budapest)
• Thöne & Fiala (Vienna- Alsergrund )

In 1917, the Austro-Hungarian aircraft manufacturers followed the trend towards the three-decker. This design variant did not bring any real advantages, however, for the pilot only the visibility deteriorated. None of these projects were produced in series.

With 40 confirmed and an unknown number of unexplained aerial victories, Captain Godwin Brumowski was the most successful Austro-Hungarian fighter pilot in the Austro-Hungarian Army , the second most successful was officer's deputy Julius Arigi with 32 confirmed and also unconfirmed kills . In the kuk Kriegsmarine , lieutenant of the line Freiherr Gottfried von Banfield was the most successful with 18 kills. He was also the only holder of the Maria Theresa Order in the Flying Troop.

After a test flight on March 20, 1918 between Vienna-Aspern and Kiev, official and daily operations began on April 1, 1918 in both directions on the Vienna - Krakow - Lemberg - Prosskurow - Kiev route. From May the Prosskurow - Odessa section was also flown.

The approximately 1,200-kilometer route was mastered according to the relay race principle, with mail being reloaded at the intermediate stations.

From July 4, 1918, an airmail line was also set up between Vienna and Budapest. An extension to Bucharest and Odessa was planned, but that never happened.

The former organizer of the public airmail line, field pilot August Raft von Marwil , became head of the Aspern airport inspection in the interwar period and first head of the civil aviation office after the Second World War .

First republic

Balloons

During the First World War, Rudolf Brunner, born in Vienna in 1876, delivered tethered balloons for artillery observers and, from 1915, parachutes . As early as 1911 he had designed a patented kerosene burner for hot air balloons, but it was not until 1926 that he was able to develop a new hot air balloon. A by-product of his preoccupation with balloons was the development of an air dome used at the Wels Festival in 1930 . In 1934 he demonstrated his hot air balloon, which he developed in 1932, in Germany and caused a sensation with the press and spectators.

In July 1937 , the engineer Josef Emmer , who was born in Vienna on April 14, 1912 , achieved the world record height of 7,819 meters for hot air balloons with a hot air balloon over Prague and at the same time the record for Austrian balloons. In September 1937 he was able to improve the world record for hot air balloons from the Olympiawiese in Vienna's Prater at 9,374 meters (this record lasted until July 19, 1961). The design of the balloon envelope used came from the engineer Bruno Marek , born in Vienna on May 28, 1908 , who also took care of the financing.

Glider and glider construction

The gliding and gliding section of the Aviation Association in Styria was founded on October 14, 1921 by First Lieutenant Adolf Kogler, the technician Hans Zoffmann and the President ao Professor Theodor Schenkel. After about two years the association was renamed Akaflieg.

The Treaty of Saint-Germain allowed those interested in aviation to only design, build and fly with gliders and gliders by banning the construction of powered aircraft.

With a flight time of 3 minutes and 31 seconds, Konrad Pernthaler set an Austrian course record on May 22, 1925. The first flight from Schöckl took place on April 23, 1926, when Pernthaler flew around 20 kilometers to Graz , which of course was also an Austrian record.

Two years later, due to a lack of planes and members, Akaflieg almost dissolved itself. On the Grazer Messe 1930 was advertised with a Flugausstellung to members, as well as experiments were performed with drag-offs made by cars and airplanes. On May 11, 1933, Walter Mühlbacher, who later became the army general, undertook the first international mail glider flight from Graz to Marburg and back.

Another association of glider pilots was founded at the Vienna University of Technology on November 11, 1921. According to the decision, the sailplanes should be built by yourself. A room in the aeromechanical laboratory of the chair was made available to them as a work space; the workshop was located in the machine elements laboratory at Gumpendorfer Straße 7.

The first self-built glider flew in April 1923 near Bruckneudorf at the foot of the Spitalberg and on November 1st and 2nd, 1924 on Hundsheimer Berg near Hainburg in Lower Austria . An identical glider was brought to Germany in 1923, where they took part in the Rhön gliding competition. After the invasion of the German Wehrmacht , this group was disbanded in 1938.

With the support of the Austrian state government ("Voluntary Labor Service"), the Austrian Aero Club built gliders in workshops set up for this purpose. The first such workshop was set up in the 12th district of Vienna ( Meidling ) at Kastanienallee 2. Another workshop was added later in Salzburg .

The location of the Salzburg glider construction warehouse was the living and working space provided by the Parsch marble works .

With these gliders, the Aero Club supported the 150 or so glider clubs in Austria at the time and equipped their own training centers at Gaisberg (Salzburg) , Hundsheim / Spitzerberg (Lower Austria) and Wiener Neustadt with them.

Motor aircraft construction (civil)

Between 1924 and 1931 was based in Vienna ( Freyung  3) and works in Brunn am Gebirge , at Aspern airfield and a repair shop in Vienna- Währing , Canongasse  12, the company Avis plane and automobile works , this company produced next to small automobiles that before in Vienna Mainly as taxis were used, also airplanes and organized sightseeing flights with a Fokker F.III until about 1926 in the Vienna area. The closure of the company was a consequence of the global economic crisis .

The “ Phönix Flugzeugwerke ” in Wöllersdorf in Lower Austria, which was founded in September 1929, were also short-lived . In the dual role of co-financier and works pilot, Captain Godwin Brumowski worked for the newly founded factory. The Phoenix "Meteor" L-2 / C was built under license by Phoenix Flugzeugbau in Düsseldorf-Lohausen (Germany). Back then, the alpine sightseeing flights with snow landings on runners carried out with this aircraft were sensational. On Easter Sunday 1932, for example, Brumowski landed at the Südwiener Hütte in the Radstädter Tauern . This company was also a victim of the Great Depression in 1932.

In addition to the construction of gliders and gliders, Akaflieg Graz was also involved in the construction of powered aircraft from around 1926. From 1930, the engineer Alfred Oswald selected from among several drafts, and its implementation began. For financial reasons, however, the aircraft was not completed.

In 1934 construction began on a motor glider designed by Eduard Walzl, which was completed in 1937 and which flew on its own on May 27th.

The engineer Theodor Hopfner , born on February 28, 1901 in Vienna, was one of the most successful aircraft builders and designers of those difficult times for the Austrian aviation industry.

After the end of the aircraft construction ban in Austria through the Treaty of Saint-Germain, Theodor Hopfner founded an aircraft factory at the Aspern airfield. With an airplane he designed and built himself, he founded a sightseeing flight company that was also allowed to offer charter flights abroad from 1925.

Many of the aircraft he designed were built in only small series (which were larger than those of his competitors), but were also sold abroad, which his competitors also hardly succeeded in doing. Its most unusual development was an airplane with neon letters for advertising purposes during night flights.

Increasing orders from the armed forces led to the establishment of an aircraft construction department at Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik AG in Hirtenberg (Lower Austria) due to a lack of production capacity .

The "Wiener Neustädter Flughafen-Betriebsges.mbH", which was founded in 1935 and in which the City of Wiener Neustadt also participated, existed as an independent aircraft manufacturer for only a few years. Among other things, two aircraft were built here for Archduke Albrecht's Gran Chaco South America expedition, as well as other customers from Austria (armed forces) and Poland. After Austria was annexed to the Third Reich in 1938, the company was changed to "Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke Ges.mbH". Mainly Bf 109 fighters were produced here. The wing construction branch located in Fischamend was managed by Theodor Hopfner.

Military aircraft

In 1928, the control of Austrian aviation established in the Treaty of Saint-Germain was lifted. On April 1, 1929, an ÖLAG flying school was founded in Graz-Thalerhof, where military training courses were also held in secret. In 1934, after the air force was "exposed", the flying school was closed and Thalerhof Airport was handed over to the military.

Austrian, Italian and British aircraft were purchased for testing and training purposes, but often only in individual pieces.

The first official flight day of the armed forces was held in September 1937 on the Aspern airfield in Vienna.

In 1939 the establishment of the air force was supposed to be completed, but this goal was not achieved by the connection .

Third Reich

Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke

Second republic

After the end of World War II, Austria was banned from all forms of aviation. Civil aviation returned to Austria on June 16, 1946 through Pan American World Airways .

In 1948 the occupying powers allowed model flying and from 1949 also glider flying again. Just two years later - in 1951 - the world championships in model gliding were held in Austria and Oskar Czepa won the gold medal for the host country.

The year 1954 brought the permission to train motorized pilots and parachutists, the parachute diving school in Graz was opened on June 27, 1954.

The Austrian State Treaty of May 15, 1955 and the completed withdrawal of the Allies also brought Austria full freedom in the airspace. This was celebrated with a flight day at today 's Vienna-Schwechat airport , the former works airport of the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke .

The first aircraft designed in Austria after the war was built by engineer Otto Kauba in Wiener Neustadt. The single-engine OK-15 took off for its maiden flight on July 16, 1956.

A Pan American World Airways PanAm DC-6 (a cargo-only aircraft ) coming directly from New York landed in Vienna on February 1st. The demonstration of a “Caravelle” in Schwechat brought the jet age to Austria. Six years later, the AUA began regular service with this type of aircraft.

The Austrian Armed Forces , which had previously only owned aircraft that had been abandoned, received a DeHavilland "Vampire" squadron, which moved to Graz-Thalerhof on April 10, 1957.

On September 30, 1957, Austrian Airlines was founded in the ballroom of Creditanstalt-Bankverein in Vienna. The first four Vickers Viscounts were chartered, the first of which flew to London on March 31, 1958 as an AUA machine .

The Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG also tried to get into the airline business. Senior engineer Erich Meindl designed a two-engine, four-seat business and touring aircraft that flew for the first time as the M 222 on May 15, 1959. On August 2 of the same year, the aircraft crashed during a test flight shortly before landing in Wiener Neustadt, killing the pilot and the on-board mechanic. In order to be able to produce the machine in series, it was redesigned as SGP 222 by engineer Rüdiger Kunz . After the fourth prototype was built , further work was discontinued.

The first factory-made Austrian powered aircraft after the Second World War came from the Oberlercher Holzindustrie company in Spittal an der Drau ( Carinthia ). The JOB-5 came out on October 20, 1958 and was produced in small series as the JOB-15 , a further development. It was designed by engineer Fritz Birkner. In 1966 Josef Oberlerchner gave up aircraft construction for financial reasons.

On July 7, 1961, the Austrian Armed Forces celebrated the commissioning of the first Jabo squadron in Schwechat, consisting of the Swedish Saab J-29F ("Flying Ton"). These were replaced in July 1970 by 40 Saab J-105Ö. The next generation not only brought the supersonic grade Saab J-35Ö Draken, but also heated discussions about the time already obsolete aircraft.

In contrast to the fast jet aircraft, the officer’s deputy Josef Malliga dealt with muscle-powered aircraft from August 1966. Among other things, he did this with the intention of winning the Kremer Prize. In July 1967 the pilot Brandl managed to cover a distance of 150 meters with “Malliga I”. Siegfried Puch managed 400 meters. In 1972 the improved machine was able to fly up to 600 meters with just muscle power. But then Josef Malliga had to stop working for personal reasons.

The MB-E1 motor glider, which was built by the aircraft factory HW Brditschka OHG ( HB-Flugtechnik ) from Haid near Linz on the Danube and converted accordingly , was the world's first take-off and subsequent flight with a manned electric aircraft . The Bosch electric motor was fed with around 10 kilowatts from 125 kilograms of VARTA nickel-cadmium batteries . Later, the Brditschka company had to limit itself to the production of kits for do-it-yourselfers.

In Szolnok , Hungary, the Austrian national skydiving team won the world championship title in the group target jump in 1974.

The first - still unofficial - world championship in the new aviation discipline "hang gliding" ( hang gliding ) was held between March 12th and 22nd, 1975 in Kössen in Tyrol . In 1976 the first official world championship was held here.

From 1975 onwards, Austrian Airlines converted to Douglas DC-9 -50 in order to be able to handle flight operations more economically. The end of 1988 brought the first of four wide-body aircraft, Airbus A310-324. As a replacement for the Fairchild Swearingen Metro previously used , up to six Fokker 50s were purchased for domestic air traffic. The switch to the Airbus A321 took place in 1996.

In 1980 first lieutenant Erich Wolf became world champion in military aerobatics . On September 11, 1981, Franz Achleitner set two world records with a Cessna "Golden Eagle" and another three climbing world records in the C1E class at heights of 3,000, 6,000 and 9,000 meters.

Josef Starkbaum also set world altitude records , but with a completely different aircraft.

• June 8, 1983: 13,670 meters altitude
• June 19, 1984: 12,375 meters altitude
• June 10, 1986: 10,670 meters altitude

He set these records with hot air balloons of various types. Josef Starkbaum, an AUA flight captain by profession, has won numerous competitions , including seven times the Gordon Bennett Cup for gas balloons , which has been held since 1906.

In 1986, the fifth European championship and in 1987 the eighth hot air balloon world championship - in which Josef Starkbaum took second place - was held in Schielleiten .

In May 1981, the most successful series production of aircraft in Austria since the imperial era was to begin in Friesach (Carinthia) . The H-36 “Dimona” motor glider made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic was developed by qualified engineer Wolf Hoffmann in Germany and, contrary to the original plan, manufactured in Friesach in Carinthia with great success (“Hoffmann Aircraft”).

The production was stopped because of the unprofitable production. As a subsidiary of Simmering-Graz-Pauker, production was resumed in Vienna in 1985 and after a revision of the machine, production of the now “Super Dimona” HK-36R with a Rotax engine produced in Austria was moved to the new factory in Wiener Neustadt in November 1988 relocated where other successful aircraft models were developed. A whole series of single and twin engines has been made considerably more fuel-efficient by installing diesel engines. The latest project, the "D-Jet", is initially a private jet with a turbine developed for the North American market. Pilots appreciate the "Diamond" aircraft as easy to use.

Despite the success of the Diamond Aircraft that emerged from Hoffmann Aircraft, there was no production of large aircraft in Austria. Numerous Austrian companies such as FACC, Böhler, Planseewerke, Pankl, Isovolta and others appear as suppliers for the construction of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

The Camcopter S-100, designed by the company Schiebel Electronic Devices , is also on the way to becoming an export hit . Development work on the missile intended for civil and military purposes began in the mid-1990s. The fact that this drone is also the winner of the Adolf Loos State Prize for Design is an added bonus to its technical capabilities.

The AMT company has been working in Burgenland since 2006 and has also specialized in small aircraft that require a very short runway. There is currently a development center at Punitz Airport near Güssing.

Military aviation

As with the equipment and armament for the ground forces, the first aircraft of the Austrian Armed Forces came from the holdings of the former occupying powers. In this case there were four Jakovlev Jak 11 and Jak 18 from the Red Army who were stationed in Langenlebarn .

More planes and helicopters were purchased later. The acquisition of the already outdated Saab Draken brought the armed forces into the age of supersonic speed, but was heavily criticized because of the age of the "rust bowl". The purchase of the Eurofighters is even more controversial because of the costs, but also because of non-verifiable reports about the alleged limited usability.

In contrast, the purchase of the Black Hawk helicopters hardly met with criticism from the population. The avalanche disaster in Galtür and the rescue operation carried out with the help of helicopters from neighboring countries had made the Austrians aware of the need for modern, high-performance helicopters.

The aircraft and helicopters mentioned here are listed in the order in which they were purchased. In various sources there are often contradicting information about the usage times and quantities.

Propeller-driven machines:

• Jakowlew Jak-11 (1956–1965, 4 pieces)
• Jakowlew Jak-18 (1955–1960, 4 pieces)
• Cessny L.19A and E Bird Dog (1958–1997, 22 pieces L-19A, 7 pieces L-19E)
• Zlín Z-126 Trenér (1957-1965, 4 pieces)
• Cessna 172 (1957–1958, 1 piece)
• Cessna 182 (1957-1965, 2 pieces)
• Fiat G.46 -4B Series 4, (1957–1963, 5 pieces)
• De Havilland Canada L-20 "Beaver" (1960–1976, 6 pieces)
• Piaggio P.149 D (1958–1965, 1 piece)
• Piper Pa-18/95 + 150 "Super Cub" (1957–1965, 8 pieces 18/95, 2 pieces 18/150)
• North American NA LT-6G Texan (1959–1968, 10 pieces)
• SAAB B17A (1957-1963, 1 piece)
• Saab 91 D Safir (1964-1993, 24 pieces)
• Pilatus Porter PC-6 (1976–, 13 pieces)
• Pilatus Porter PC-7 (1983–, 16 pieces)

Jet-powered machines:

• Saab J-29-B / F Tunnan ("flying bin") (1961–1972, 30 pieces)
• De Havilland DH 115 Vampire TMk.55 and model Mk.T11 (1957–1972, 9 pieces)
• Aerospatiale (Fouga Potez) CM.170 Magister (1959–1972, 18 pieces)
• SAAB 35OE Draken (1987-2005, 24 pieces)
• Saab 105 OE (1970–, 40 pieces)
• F5-E Tiger II (2004–, 12 pieces)
• Eurofighter EF 2000 (2007–, 15 pieces)

Transport machines:

• Short Skyvan SC7 (1969-2007, 2 pieces)
• Casa CN-235 (2002, 1 piece leased)
• Lockheed C-130 Hercules (2003–, 3 pieces)

Helicopter:

• Agusta Bell AB-27G2 (1956–1969, 10 pieces)
• Bell H-13H "Sioux" (1960–1976, 17 pieces)
• Aérospatiale SA-3130 Alouette II (1958–1975, 16 pieces)
• Aérospatiale SA-319 Alouette III (1967–, 28 pieces)
• Sikorsky S-55 (1958–1965, 10 pieces)
• Sikorsky S-65 OE (1970–1981, 2 pieces)
• Agusta Bell AB-204 (1963-2004, 26 pieces)
• Agusta Bell AB-206A "Jet Ranger" (1969–, 13 pieces)
• Agusta Bell AB-212 (1980–, 25 pieces)
• Bell OH-58 "Kiowa" (1976–, 12 pieces)
• Sikorsky S-70 “Black Hawk” (2002–, 9 pieces)

In contrast to the Danube Monarchy or the First Republic, the Austrian Armed Forces of the Second Republic have no aircraft manufactured or developed in Austria.

Balloons

On April 10, 1955, after a 17-year break, the Swiss Fred Dolder took off with a gas balloon from Vogelweidplatz in Vienna. The following ascents of Austrian balloons were partly dedicated to charity organizations such as “ Pro Juventute ” and “ SOS Children's Villages ”.

Josef Starkbaum - in civilian flight captain with Austrian Airlines - won numerous victories in competitions with gas and hot air balloons and also set world records:

• World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX8): on June 8th 1983 13,670 meters altitude
• World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX7): on June 19, 1984, 12,375 meters altitude
• World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX6): 10,670 meters altitude
• World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX7): on July 8, 1995, an altitude of 14,018 meters

World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX8): on July 21, 1998 15,360 meters altitude

Furthermore, he was multiple national, European and world champion and together with Gert Scholz multiple winner of the Gordon Bennett Cup for gas balloons .

About ten years later, Dr. Günther Schabus succeeded him as a successful balloonist:

• World altitude record (combination of gas and hot air balloon): on October 13, 1994 5,928 meters altitude
• Endurance world record (hot air balloon class AX1 and AX2): on October 13, 1994 2 hours 50 minutes 39 seconds
• World altitude record (hot air balloon class AX1): on February 28, 1995 2,250 meters altitude
• Heidrun Posch , who comes from Salzburg, achieved the world record height for women of 10,876 meters with a hot air balloon on August 19, 2002.

Thomas Lewetz - Silvia Wagner and Johann Fürstner - Josef Huber were also successful balloonists on the Gordon Bennett balloon rides.

In 1984 the balloon pilot partners Helmut Meierhofer and Wolfgang Jenicek wanted to take part in a balloon competition, but only owned one balloon. Elfi Jenicek, the wife of Wolfgang Jenicek, used 1,100 meters of fabric (width 1.5 meters) and 7,000 meters of special thread to sew the second balloon envelope for more than a month. She finished with this work on December 20, 1983. Nothing is known about the outcome of the competition.

Balloons are manufactured in Austria by the Schön Ballon company in Wels in Upper Austria, and balloon rides are offered commercially by 32 companies and associations according to the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (as of October 1, 2003).

Glider and glider construction

The company Flugzeugbau Kittelberger Bregenz, which was founded in Bregenz ( Vorarlberg ) in the interwar period , was dismantled after the end of the Second World War, but the founder began rebuilding as early as 1946 and built gliders, among other things, for the occupying forces.

In Salzburg, Franz Spilka and Josef Wettstein worked together in a working group for glider construction. Gliders were built, but also airplane parts for gliders and powered airplanes.

Engineer Rüdiger Kunz worked on the construction of the standard glider " Standard Austria S ". The prototype first flew in July 1959. The series-ready “Standard Austria” of the Austrian Aero Club was awarded the OSTIV Prize for the best new design at the World Championships in Cologne in 1960 , but was also successful in flight with its pilot Hans Resch.

During the next few years this glider achieved numerous records:

• Target flight record: 737.03 kilometers on August 7, 1963, pilot Benjamin Greene in Texas
• Target distance flight record with return: 699.04 kilometers on January 8, 1964, pilot M. Jackson in South Africa
• World record in triangular flight and women's world record: 500 kilometers at 104 km / h, 1963, pilot Ann Burns
• World record in triangular flight: 100 kilometers at 96 km / h

There were also Austrian, German, French and British records.

In Germany, engineer Rüdiger Kunz was involved in the development of the Airbus as well as in that of the fighter aircraft now known as the “Eurofighter”. For aircraft construction in Austria he was important as an expert for the type certification of the "Super Dimona" and the "Katana".

Before the Second World War, engineer Erwin Musger worked, among other things, for the glider construction program of the Austrian Aero Club. In the second republic he also designed numerous gliders that were built by clubs and smaller companies. These sailors were also sold to Germany and England, among others.

Development of aircraft types

Muscle power and swing fliers

In order to realize the desire to be able to fly, the designers imitated the flapping of the birds' wings. Originally only the muscle power of their own bodies was available to them as the driving force for their apparatus, combustion engines were only used later. The attempts were more numerous than the examples cited here, the successes low.

Until 1918

Jakob Degen, who comes from Switzerland, combined his wing flapping apparatus with a gas balloon. On November 13, 1808, he rose for the first time in the Prater in Vienna, and on September 6, 1810, he presented his apparatus to Kaiser Franz in Laxenburg.

Karl Cerny originally built models of swing arm flight models. In 1912 he began building a flying machine that could carry a person. For this purpose he got an engine from the Austrian Aviation Technical Association. The flying machine was to be tested for the first time as part of the international flight meeting in Vienna-Aspern in 1914. Before that happened, however, the report of the assassination of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este arrived and the event was canceled.

From 1911 Count Georg Khevenhüller worked together with Franz Xaver Wels, who had already worked with the Etrichs, on a swing arm glider at Hochosterwitz Castle . However, the success with swing operation was low.

Interwar period

Franz Xaver Wels built a single-seater sport aircraft with translational drive in Bielsko-Biała in Poland in 1924 . This type of drive has been successfully tested on model aircraft, but in reality the “cycloid flyer” did not take off from the ground.

Even before the First World War , Karl Cerny had dealt with the swing wing flight and continued his efforts in the interwar period. For lack of money, however, the experiments with a motorcycle with movable wings had to be stopped in 1929.

Supported by the fitter Karl Passarek, Karl Brunner, a mechanic from Vienna, first built a few models of swing-wing aircraft with rubber cord engines. Their useful successes encouraged the two to build a motorized man-carrying aircraft from 1937. The aircraft was severely damaged during one of the trial starts, which led to the end of the tests.

Second republic

Franz Pillesmüller, a master locksmith from Bad Vöslau in Lower Austria, worked on a flapping wing apparatus ("Pillfra I"), for which he was also able to apply for a patent. The flight attempts themselves were unsuccessful.

From August 1966, Josef Malliga, a member of the Armed Forces, worked on a muscle-powered aircraft in Zeltweg in Styria. In 1967, modern materials made it possible to fly up to 400 meters. Since these were not enough to win the Kremer Prize, the aircraft was rebuilt in 1971/72, but was damaged by a gust of wind when it was first attempted to take off in 1972. After the repair, flight distances of up to 600 meters were achieved. Josef Malliga was prevented from continuing his work due to personal circumstances.

Vertical takeoff and rotary wing aircraft

The designers of VTOL aircraft and rotary wing aircraft tried to take off from the ground and fly in a different way. The how explains the name of Wilhelm Kress for one of his developments: "Flying machine without a run-up".

Before 1918

Wilhelm Kress built a helicopter model between 1892 and 1896 with two counter-rotating propellers to compensate for the torque . The flight tests of the models were successful, but the construction of a man-carrying large model was rejected by the military.

Wilhelm Kress also developed the so-called “flying machine without starting”. The flying machine should take off vertically and then pivot its propellers by 90 degrees and fly horizontally supported by two wings. The construction of a prototype initially failed due to lack of money and finally due to the death of Wilhelm Kress. This design was similar to the Bell Boeing V-22 "Osprey" launched on March 19, 1989 in the United States .

As an alternative to the tethered balloons for artillery observers, Lieutenant Colonel Stephan Petróczy von Petrócz proposed to the War Ministry in 1916 the development of "screw tethered pilots ". This commissioned the companies Publag and Daimler Motoren AG with the help of Ferdinand Porsche, engineer Köhler, engineer Zadnik, director Ockermüller and engineer Karl Balaban.

On a vertical axis there were two propellers rotating in opposite directions, the blades of which were arranged in pairs one above the other, similar to the wings of a biplane. The project initially failed because the propellers, driven by an electric motor that was powered by a long cable from the ground, did not generate enough lift.

Engineer Theodore von Kármán continued to work in Fischamend on the project now known as PKZ 1 and later PKZ 2. The abbreviation is derived from the participating designers Petróczy, Kármán and Zurovec. After the successful operation of a model, an aircraft held by three ropes was manufactured at MAG in Hungary in 1917, which also took off with a three-man crew. After a few attempts, however, the electric motor burned down and work on PKZ 1 was stopped.

At the end of 1917, Lieutenant Engineer Wilhelm Zurovec began to work on PKZ 2. He used a gasoline engine. The first flight took place on April 2, 1918 near Budapest. Due to the insufficient engine power, a more powerful engine was installed later. On June 10, 1918, the device was badly damaged in a crash, and the end of the war also ended development work. In various test flights, ascents of up to 50 meters can be achieved.

Interwar period

Anton Lutsch from Krensdorf in Burgenland developed an unusually shaped propeller, combined two of them together with a flapping wing apparatus and a motor on a frame that should be carried on the back like a backpack. However, the propellers did not provide enough lift, so that the designer did not take off from the ground.

The Austrian engineer Raoul Hafner and business graduate Bruno Nagler developed helicopters together. In 1932 they moved to England , where they found more support. Engineer Raoul Hafner was successful there, Bruno Nagler returned to Austria in 1935, where he continued his work with Franz Rolz. After the end of the Second World War he first moved to Brazil and later to the USA, where he founded several helicopter manufacturing companies.

Second republic

In 1960 the gyroplane called "Giro-Segler" was presented. This motorless construction was provided with floats and was supposed to be towed by a motorboat and thereby take off.

Paul Jaritz and Hans Krug developed a one-man helicopter in 1964. This should be used for rescue flights in the mountains. However, the work was stopped.

From 1966, Oskar Westermayer developed numerous gyroplanes.

New aviation equipment

Hang glider (delta glider)

The now known hang gliders or delta gliders were invented in 1948 by the American Francis Rogallo by connecting three poles in a fan shape with a sail.

The first known hang glider in Austria was Harti Huber from Munich in Kössen (winter 1973). In March 1974 the first European hang gliding meeting took place in Kössen, on December 6th and 17th 1974 the first Austrian state championship and between March 12th and 22nd 1975 the first alpine hang gliding world championship.

Manfred Ruhmer from Austria, first three-time world champion, two-time European champion, set a long-distance record in the FAI-I class with 700.8 kilometers on July 17, 2001 (Texas / USA, average speed 66.2 km / h).

Delta gliders are manufactured by several Austrian companies, especially in the Alpine states. These are either in-house developments or licensed products.

Paragliders (paragliders)

As with the delta gliders, the first world championship in paragliding took place in Kössen in Tyrol (July 1–16 , 1989).

On June 19, 2000, Klaus Helmhofer set a new world record in the triangle flight with 203.6 kilometers. He flew around the FAI triangle Stubnerkogel (starting point) - Alte Traunsteiner Hütte - Schönangerl.

Helmut Eichholzer from Kuchl is successful as a wrestler and paraglider (national champion 2003, 2005, 2006) .

Here, too, mainly companies in the Alpine federal states of Austria manufacture paragliders of their own or third-party development (license).

According to the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (as of June 2, 2006), there are 80 companies in Austria for the commercial transport of people and things on demand with two-seater paragliders (hang-gliders).

Paraplanes

Paraplanes have a three-wheeled chassis on which the paraglider pilot is seated and the engine is mounted. In 1985 this drive was developed in the USA.

Auxiliary engine systems

The purpose of the auxiliary engine systems was originally to enable hang-gliders to take off on even terrain. With current developments, the parts that form a unit, such as the propeller, tank and engine, are strapped on like a backpack.

In 1976, Franz Schöfmann was the first known user of an auxiliary engine to return to the launch site. Because of the legal situation at the time, he officially started his own development for the first time in 1976 at the Rhön meeting in Germany, where he was the only one to start on the plain with his kite.

Ultralight trikes

Ultralight trikes are mobile pedestals with a motor, thrust screw and a maximum of two seats. These trikes are mounted below the hang glider. There are also Austrian producers and producers here.

Fixed wing aircraft

Fixed-wing or ultra-light gliders are crossings of delta gliders and gliders. They have wings with an aerodynamic and rigid profile and are controlled by flaps or rudders. Like a hang-glider, the pilot hangs under the wings.

technology

Aircraft engines

Until 1918

Steam engines, hot-air machines or carbon dioxide engines were used as the first mechanical power sources during the first flight attempts. The initially high weight of the gasoline engine prevented its use, for example Kress failed due to the poor weight-performance ratio.

The first internal combustion engines built into aircraft were, for example, engines built and adapted for motor vehicles by Daimler Motoren AG in Wiener Neustadt. Maschinen AG Körting also appeared as a technical outfitter.

The engine production in Austria was not adapted to the increased demand during the war and so had to be imported from the German Empire.

Hubert Schiske from Groß-Enzersdorf near Vienna developed the first engine specifically for aircraft from 1907. In this 4-cylinder engine, the cylinders were offset by 90 degrees to one another, similar to the later radial engines . However, only one copy was built.

In 1910, the Austrian Daimler-Motoren AG under director Ferdinand Porsche brought the first series aircraft engine with 65 hp onto the market. At the end of the war there were already 12-cylinder engines with up to 400 hp in the range. The Hungarian company MAG built these engines under license from 1916, as did the former Rapp works in Munich .

Otto Hieronimus designed his first aircraft engine at Laurin & Klement in 1908/09, which he brought to series production readiness after moving to Werner & Pfleiderer in Vienna. From 1911 onwards the so-called Hiero motors were produced in series. These engines also became more and more powerful under the pressure of the war. They were produced under license in Hungary by the company "Martha" in Arad and "Ganz-Fiat" in Budapest, and from 1917 in the automobile factory Loeb & Co. GmbH in Berlin-Charlottenburg in Germany.

After the war, Warchalowski built the Type T Hiero engine with 35/40 HP for small aircraft.

First republic

The Treaty of Saint-Germain also banned the manufacture of aircraft engines, but the low demand for aircraft made series production uneconomical.

From the 1930s onwards, aviation enthusiasts developed their own engines for their aircraft. Karl Jentschke, who works for the Steyr works, designed an air-cooled two-cylinder boxer engine for his own small aircraft . The 60 hp two-cylinder boxer engine for his new aircraft, which engineer Leopold Bauer had also developed himself, was exhibited in the rotunda in Vienna in 1932, but this was never completed.

The two-stroke aircraft engine developed jointly by graduate engineer Richard Siedek and engineer Kraus should also power a self-made aircraft.

Before joining the Third Reich , Siemens began producing radial engines in Vienna. The cast parts from Germany were processed and assembled in Vienna. They were primarily intended for the Udet SU-12a "Flamingo", Focke-Wulf Fw 44 "Stieglitz" and Hopfner aircraft built for the Federal Army .

Second republic

Oskar Westermayer from Poysbrunn in Lower Austria developed numerous gyroplanes from 1966 onwards, but also worked on improving aircraft engines. For example, he retrofitted engineer Heinrich Brditschka and his motor glider program Volkswagen engines for cars to make them airworthy. Because of technical problems with these engines in flight operations, he developed his own engine.

Rotax, founded in Dresden, has been based in Austria since 1943 and also produces engines for aircraft, among other things.

Aircraft propeller

One of the first companies in Austria-Hungary to start producing aircraft propellers was Jacob Lohner & Co. From 1912 there was a propeller construction department which, under engineer Leopold Bauer, developed its own propeller type for each type of engine. Large domestic buyers were the army and navy , aircraft factories and aircraft owners, but also foreign customers.

The Austrian-Hungarian Autoplan-Werke Ges.mbH in the 16th district of Vienna, Odoakergasse 95, followed the wage factories. This was mainly for the Pischof-Autoplanes and Warchalowski double-deckers.

Other producers were:

• Matthias Heiduk, a cabinet maker in Vienna-Meidling, Arndtstrasse 39.
• Austro-Hungarian Integral Propeller Werke Ges.mbH in Vienna-Ottakring, Thaliastraße 102.
• Vienna bodywork factory in Vienna-Favoriten, Laxenburger Strasse  131–135.
• Sigmund Járay, a propeller factory with headquarters in Vienna-Wieden, Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 70 and factories in Weyringergasse 12-14 and Quellenstrasse 15. It was possible to deliver up to 1000 propellers per month and a diameter of up to 8.2 meters.
• kuk aviation arsenal in Fischamend, where there was also a propeller test bench.

Aircraft instruments

In order to be able to control the technical condition of the aircraft, monitoring devices were necessary as well as nautical instruments for navigation .

Manufacturing companies were mostly precision mechanics workshops and manufacturers of measuring devices, which expanded their range of products intended for automobile and steam engine construction accordingly.

Such companies were, for example, A. Kroneis in Vienna 19, Iglaseegasse 30-32, Walzl in Vienna, Julius Drach in Vienna, J. v. Petravic, Thöne & Fiala in Vienna.

During the First World War, the Sigmundsherberg prisoner-of-war camp in the Waldviertel (Lower Austria) was connected to the aviation arsenal, a depot for aircraft instruments, to which the dismantled measuring instruments were brought from shot down and captured aircraft in order to be either repaired and later re-installed in newly built machines or in the case of irreparable devices, to be dismantled and sorted by material.

Air carrier

In 2009 there were 66 area aviation companies in Austria with 356 aircraft and 19 helicopter companies with 83 helicopters. In addition, there were 41 maintenance companies with various permits.

Fixed wing aircraft

The following list includes aerospace companies that are in possession of a valid Air Operator's Certificate ( AOC ) and a valid operating license for passengers, mail and / or cargo ('passengers', 'mail and / or cargo').

• AAA - AIR ALPS AVIATION GmbH (Innsbruck)
• ABC supply flight GmbH (Innsbruck)
• AERO-CHARTER KRIFKA GmbH (Wels)
• AIRLINK Luftverkehrsges.mbH (Salzburg Airport)
• AIR STYRIA Luftfahrtunternehmen GmbH (Graz-Thalerhof)
• A-Jet Aviation & Aircraft Management GmbH (Vienna)
• ALPENFLUG Ges.mbH & Co. KG (Zell am See)
• Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH - People's Airline
• AMERER AIR GmbH air transport company (Hörsching)
• Amira Air GmbH (Vienna Airport)
• AUSTRIAN AIRLINES AG (Vienna Airport)
• AVAG AIR GmbH for Aviation (Salzburg Airport)
• Avcon Jet AG (Vienna)
• AVIA CONSULT Flugbetriebsgesellschaft mbH
• BACH Flugbetriebs GmbH (Vienna)
• BANNERT AIR supply company GmbH (Schwechat)
• BRAUNEGG LUFTTAXI GmbH (Vienna)
• Business Express Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH (Graz)
• COMTEL-AIR Luftverkehrs - GmbH (Vienna Airport)
• DAEDALOS Flugbetriebs GmbH (Graz)
• DJT Aviation GmbH & Co. KG (Graz)
• DURST GmbH (Vienna)
• EuroManx Airways GmbH (Vienna Airport)
• EUROP STAR Aircraft GmbH (Villach)
• FLIGHT TAXI SUBEN GmbH (Ried)
• Flynext Luftverkehrsgesellschaft mbH (Vienna Airport)
• DI FRÜHWALD & SÖHNE KG (Vienna)
• Global Jet Austria GmbH (Vienna)
• GOLDECK FLUG GmbH (Spittal an der Drau)
• GROSSMANN AIR SERVICE - Airline company GmbH & Co. KG (Vienna)
• HAWEI-AIR Luftfahrt GmbH (Graz)
• INTER-AVIA Flugbetriebs GmbH (Sankt Georgen im Attergau)
• International Jet Management GmbH (IJM) (Schwechat)
• INTERSKY LUFTFAHRT GmbH (Bregenz)
• JETALLIANCE Flugbetriebs GmbH (Oberwaltersdorf)
• JETFLY AIRLINE GmbH (Hörsching)
• Christian König - Century Airbirds (Feldkirchen)
• KRONO AIR GmbH (Wals near Salzburg)
• LAUDA AIR Luftfahrt GmbH (Vienna Airport)
• LFU-Peter Gabriel, Luftfahrtges.mbH (Vienna)
• Luxe Aviation GmbH (Schwechat Airport)
• MAGNA AIR Luftfahrt GmbH (Oberwaltersdorf)
• Majestic Executive Aviation AG (Vienna)
• MALI AIR Luftverkehr GmbH (Möderbrugg)
• MAP Management + Planning GmbH (Schwechat)
• MJET GmbH (Vienna)
• NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH (Vienna Airport)
• Ocean Sky GmbH (Salzburg)
• Pink Aviation Services - Luftverkehrsunternehmen GmbH & Co.KG (Vienna)
• RATH AVIATION GMBH (Salzburg)
• REDAIR Luftfahrt GmbH (Mils)
• ROBIN HOOD Aviation GMBH (Feldkirchen near Graz)
• SalzburgJetAviation GmbH (Salzburg)
• STEIRISCHE MOTORFLUG UNION (Graz)
• TRANSAIR requirement flight GmbH (Vienna)
• TYROL AIR AMBULANCE Ges.mbH (Innsbruck)
• TYROLEAN AIRWAYS Tiroler Luftfahrt GmbH (Innsbruck)
• TYROLEAN JET SERVICE Nfg. GmbH & Co. KG (Innsbruck)
• Vienna Jetbedarfsluftfahrt GmbH (Vienna)
• VIF Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH (Vienna)
• VipJets Luftfahrtunternehmen GmbH (Salzburg)
• Vista Jet Luftfahrtunternehmen GmbH (Salzburg)
• Ing.G. WATSCHINGER GmbH (Bad Vöslau)
• Welcome Air Luftfahrt-GmbH & Co KG (Innsbruck)
• WWWbedarfsluftfahrtsgesmbH (Vienna)

helicopter

The following list includes helicopter operators that are in possession of a valid AOC operator certificate and a valid operating license for passengers, mail and / or cargo . (As of March 3, 2010.)

• Aerial Helicopter, Großharras ( Currently no commercial flight operations are allowed, as there is currently no valid AOC. Status: March 3, 2010.)
• Alpin Copter GmbH & Co KEG, Kitzbühel
• ARA Flugrettungs GmbH, Klagenfurt
• Berger Air Flugdienst GmbH, Bernstein ( There is currently no commercial flight operation. Status: March 3, 2010.)
• Euroheli Austria GmbH, Vöcklabruck
• Flymed GmbH, Oberpullendorf
• Goldeck Flug GmbH, Spittal / Drau
• Heli Austria GmbH, St. Johann im Pongau , Hinterglemm , Trieben , Karres , Hochgurgl
• Helikopter Air Transport GmbH, Innsbruck
• Heli Line Hubschraubertransporte GmbH, Kilb and Graz Airport
• Helios Hubschraubertransporte GmbH, Anthering
• Heliservice Salzburg GmbH, Wals-Himmelreich
• HTM Helicopter Travel Munich GmbH, Salzburg Airport
• Hubi Fly Helicopterschule GmbH, Vienna , location: Bad Vöslau
• Hubschraub-air True Colors GmbH & Co KEG, Linz
• Schenk Air GmbH, Schruns
• Schider Helicopter-Service-GmbH, Waidring
• SHS Helicopter Transporte GmbH, Zell am See and Waidring
• Wucher Helicopter GmbH, Ludesch

See also : Christophorus Air Rescue Association

Accidents

OILAG

On April 19, 1930, the Junkers F 13 OE-LAH ("Sun Bird") of the ÖLAG had to make an emergency landing on the Wörthersee during the Venice - Vienna flight. The pilot Elßler and two passengers were able to disembark and were therefore not injured when the plane sank. The sunken aircraft was lifted after three days, taken over by Lufthansa on January 1, 1939 and used for sightseeing flights. On June 10, 1940, it came to the German Air Force .

YAT

Memorial stone for the victims of the plane crash in 1955

→ Main article : Air accident on Leopoldsberg in 1955

A twin-engine Convair of the Yugoslav airline JAT crashed on October 10, 1955 near the Josefinenhütte on Vienna's Höhenstrasse . 23 of the 29 occupants of the machine, including the wife and daughter of the Austrian ambassador Schwarzenberg in Belgrade , survived the accident.

AUA flight OS 901

→ Main article : Austrian Airlines Flight 901

On September 26, 1960, a Vickers Viscount of Austrian Airlines collided with the site near Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport in poor weather conditions. 26 passengers and 5 crew members were killed.

Airplane crash over Vienna

On Pentecost Saturday, May 16, 1964 at 3:05 p.m., there was an aircraft collision between two small aircraft over the built-up Vienna urban area of ​​the districts of Neubau and Josefstadt . A so-called “greeting nonsense” was assumed to be the likely trigger of the aircraft accident, in which at least one of the pilots flies towards the other with his aircraft to “greet”. All seven occupants of the two machines could only be recovered dead at the two crash sites:

On board the six-seater Cessna involved was the pilot who had started with his paying passengers from Schwechat Airport on a sightseeing flight over Vienna. A young couple was on board; a widowed woman who wanted to offer her relatives visiting from Styria something special with a visit to the new airport and a sightseeing flight over Vienna, as well as the husband of her niece who was flying with her. The latter and their two befriended couple stayed on the ground because of the niece's fear of flying, which saved the three people's lives. On board the second aircraft, a Piper from the Aero Club Aspern , were the pilot and his acquaintance as a passenger who took off from Aspern Airport at 2:52 p.m. on a so-called free flight - a maximum of 30 minutes within a radius of 30 kilometers .

The Cessna crashed immediately after the collision, first fell into a corner building on Neubaugasse - which was badly damaged in the process - and finally smashed at the intersection of Mondscheingasse-Neubaugasse. Parts of the machine came to rest on several buildings in the immediate vicinity. Part of the engine flew into the apartment of a resident who was injured by the rubble. Several people, including actors from the Löwingerbühne at the crash site, who were in the crash area during or just before, were uninjured. The wings of the Piper were damaged in the collision and then tumbled spinning into an inner courtyard of a house on Josefstädter Strasse, in the immediate vicinity of the theater in Josefstadt . At the time, there was a man with his five-year-old son and his father-in-law in the courtyard garden adjacent to the courtyard. Although they were only a few meters away from the crash site, they were unharmed.

The gate post of the town hall guard of the nearby town hall had observed the accident and immediately informed the mayor Jonas and the switchboard. This means that the emergency services were not on site a short time later, but also the mayor a few minutes after the accident.

Balloon accident at the Danube Tower

On the occasion of a Pro Juventute event on June 6, 1968, seven balloons were supposed to take off from the meadow near the Danube Tower . While three of them drove past the tower without any problems, the fourth was driven directly into the tower, where it initially got stuck on the safety bars and then fell. The American balloonist Francis Shields, DDr. Guntram Pammer (Councilor of the Post and Telegraph Directorate) and Dieter Kasper (APA journalist) perished.

Rhine valley flight

On February 23, 1989, when a Rockwell Commander AC-90 crashed on the Rhine Valley flight over Lake Constance near Rorschach, eleven people, including the then Austrian Minister of Social Affairs, Alfred Dallinger , were killed.

Lauda Air

On May 26, 1991, a Boeing 767-300 crashed on Lauda Air flight 004 due to automatic activation of the thrust reverser during the flight over Thailand. 213 passengers and 10 crew members were killed.

Hapag-Lloyd Airbus (flight number HF 3378)

→ Main article : Hapag-Lloyd flight 3378

Because the landing gear was not retracted, the Hapag-Lloyd Airbus A310-304 with flight number HF 3378, which took off from Chania on Crete (Greece), consumed more fuel than normal on July 12, 2000. The Airbus piloted by Wolfgang Arminger had to make an emergency landing 500 meters from the runway at Vienna-Schwechat airport. 26 people were slightly injured.

AUA flight OS 111

→ Main article : Austrian Airlines Flight 111

Due to problems with the engine, a Fokker 70 had to make an emergency landing in a field near Munich Airport on January 5, 2004 . All 28 passengers and four crew members were uninjured. The reason for the emergency landing of the “Wiener Neustadt” was defective ice protection strips on the engines; the pilot was not held responsible for the accident.

BFS Business Flight Salzburg Commercial Aviation School (OE-CFT)

On February 28, 2010 between 9:00 am and 9:20 am there was an accident on a meadow on Brackenberg in Waldzell with the small aircraft of the type Cessna C150E (built in 1964) of the Austrian commercial aviation school Business Flight Salzburg (BFS ) registered on OE-CFT ). The machine with the 37-year-old flight instructor and his 21-year-old flight student on board took off at 8:45 a.m. from Salzburg Airport ( LOWS ) with the destination Suben in Upper Austria. Both inmates were killed in the crash.

Airports and airfields

• Airport Wien-Schwechat
• Graz-Thalerhof Airport
• Innsbruck airport
• Klagenfurt Airport
• Linz Airport
• Salzburg Airport
• Wels airfield
• Partly historical airfields in Vienna
• Wiener Neustadt / West airfield and Wiener Neustadt / East airfield

literature

• Engelbert Zaschka : rotary wing aircraft. Gyroscopes and helicopters. CJE Volckmann Nachf. E. Wette, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1936, OCLC 20483709 .
• Hans Löw: Austrian pioneers in aviation. Waldheim-Eberle, Vienna 1953.
• Reinhard Keimel : Austria's aircraft - history of aviation from the beginning until the end of 1918. Herbert Weishaupt Verlag, Graz, ISBN 3-900310-03-3 .
• Reinhard Keimel: Aircraft Construction in Austria - From the Beginnings to the Present. AVIATIC Verlag, Oberhaching, ISBN 3-925505-78-4 .
• Adolf Ezsöl: Die kuk Österreichische Luftschiffahrt 1909–1915 , 2001, Schwechater Druckerei, ISBN 3-900310-11-4 .
• Ernst Peter: Gyrocopter, Helicopter, Austria's Pioneers , 1985, ISBN 3-900310-21-1 .
• Peter M. Grosz / George Haddow / Peter Schiemer: Austrio-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One , 1993, ISBN 0-9637110-0-8 .

Web links

• Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology: Information about aviation
• Austrian Aviation Archive website
• Aviaticum Aviation Museum website
• Website Aviator.at Verlag: The flyer website from Austria including airfield and airport directory

swell

1. ↑ Press reports on the landing of the "Sachsen" on ANNO , accessed on October 20, 2013.
2. ^ Edvard Rusjan (German) accessed on August 12, 2009
3. ^ Pischof Autoplan OE-VBC.
4. ^ Pischof Autoplan OE-VBC.
5. ↑ Ralf B. Korte, overflight rights. a revision part one: loading data; to ventilate & dream of spaces , In: Scheinschlag , 1/2003, online
6. ↑ A great misfortune in Vienna's aviation industry. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, June 20, 1914, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
7. ^ The balloon disaster in Fischamend. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, June 21, 1914, p. 11 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ Lohner Etrich-F Taube OE-CET.
9. ^ Early Aviation-exhibition 1: Die kuk aeronautische Anstalt Fischamend , 2011, page 83, ISBN 978-3-200-02309-3 .
10. ↑ The plane for everyone. Badener Zeitung, December 12, 1928, p. 4 middle [1]
11. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung from August 4, 1959
12. ^ Pierluigi Duranti, FAI : Electrical and Sun Powered Gliders: Do They Require a Definition of New FAI Classes? Presented at the XXV OSTIV Congress, St. Auban, France. In: Technical Soaring . Volume XXII, No. 3 , 1998, ISSN  0744-8996 , p. 66-73 .
13. ↑ ^{a b} Overview of the winners of the Gordon Bennett Cup (Excel file) ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. from the official website, accessed September 30, 2010 
14. ^ BMVIT : Statistics of Civil Aviation . Retrieved March 7, 2010.
15. ↑ BMVIT: Directory of Area Aviation Companies , status March 3, 2010, accessed on March 7, 2010.
16. ↑ BMVIT: Directory of Helicopter Aviation Companies , accessed on March 7, 2010.
17. ↑ Daily newspaper: Die Presse October 11, 1955
18. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung of May 17, 1964, pp. 1, 3 and 5
19. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung of June 8, 1968 and May 12, 1970
20. ↑ http://versa.bmvit.gv.at/uploads/media/19680606_K_1050_3_35624.pdf
21. ↑ austrianwings.info: Cessna 150 crashed in Upper Austria - 2 dead , March 7, 2010. Accessed March 7, 2010.