Maximilian Macher

Maximilian Macher (born February 8, 1882 in Gutenstein , Austria-Hungary ; † March 9, 1930 ) was an Austro-Hungarian, later Austrian, balloon driver who belonged, among other things, to the kuk airship department .

Life

Maximilian Macher was born on February 8, 1882 in the northern Slovenian town of Gutenstein, which at that time belonged to the Crown Land of Carinthia and, accordingly, to Austria-Hungary . After he was employed as a one-year volunteer with Regiment 4 of the fortress artillery ( Styrian - Krainerisches Festungsartillerie Regiment " Graf Colloredo-Mels " No. 4 ) in 1902 , he was activated in 1903 as a professional officer. As a result, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1910 and assigned to the kuk airship department , which had only been reorganized the year before. Around the year 1912, he acted it as a free balloon pilot and later as steering balloonist , before he in 1915 for kuk aeronaut department in the north woods in Cuxhaven was ordered. After his promotion to captain in 1916, he was assigned to the staff of the General Inspector of the Austrian Air Force in Vienna in 1917 due to illness . In the course of his career, Macher, whose special training took place in the power balloon, took part in many Zeppelin trips in Germany as well as in enemy territory. Among other things, he flew on March 18, 1914 from Fischamend over Germany and the Baltic Sea , eight hours of which over the Baltic Sea, with the free balloon "Archduke Joseph Ferdinand" in a solo flight to Trelleborg in Sweden. He set an Austrian record in free ballooning with a calculated air line distance of 840 kilometers and a flight time of 31 hours and 12 minutes. Macher died on March 9, 1930 at the age of 48.

Web links

• Doer, Maximilian. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 394.