Raab-Katzenstein-Flugzeugwerke
The Raab-Katzenstein (Raka) was a German manufacturer of aircraft .
history
founding
The company was founded on November 16, 1925 in Kassel-Bettenhausen from the Dietrich-Gobiet Flugzeugwerk AG as a spin-off of the factory pilots Antonius Raab (1897–1985) and Kurt Katzenstein (1895–1984) with the businessman Anatole Gobiet after internal disputes with Richard Dietrich . In his memoirs, Raab wrote that Dietrich had “discovered his sympathies for the Nazi party ” in 1925 and tried to drive out the not “purely Aryan” Kurt Katzenstein and Gobiet, who had brought him money and fame. In the new work there were “no 'racial' prejudices”.
swallow
As a part of the workers and employees as well as the design office with changed in the new company, succeeded in a short time the construction of its own biplane - art aircraft . For this, chief engineer Paul John Hall revised his last draft DP XI by Dietrich-Gobiet and derived the class 1 swallow from it, which led to a protracted but later unsuccessful lawsuit by the ex-company. The first flight of the 71 kW seven-cylinder radial engine Siemens Sh 11 with Antonius Raab on board took place on January 16, 1926. Type certification took place on March 25, 1926, and intensive advertising quickly led to sales success. In July 1926, 120 workers were already working on the production of the machine. A total of more than 30 Schwalbe were produced, which were flown by the German aerobatic pilot Vera von Bissing and Gerhard Fieseler , for example . Fieseler became German aerobatic master in a class Ic (D-1212) modified according to his wishes in the summer of 1928. RaKa also ran its own factory pilot schools at Kassel-Waldau and Bonn / Hangelar airfields , in which Gerhard Fieseler and Otto Peschke worked as flight instructors.
In the first half of 1926 Hall designed the RK 2 “Pelikan”, planned as a two-seater beginner's training aircraft , which was identical in many parts to the “Schwalbe”, but had an enlarged wingspan of 10.4 m. The first flight took place on August 30, 1926.
Aircraft tow
In the spring of 1927, RaKa employees developed the aircraft tow , which, on the occasion of a “major flight day” at the Kassel-Waldau airfield on April 18, 1927, was carried out by Kurt Katzenstein in the RK 7 “Butterfly” and Gerhard Fieseler as a pilot in the RK 6 “Kranich” D -975 was presented to the public for the first time.
The aircraft tow was then promptly presented by RaKa on many flight days and on an overland flight from Karlsruhe to Kassel. As a result, the United States Army Air Corps bought a complete “tow train” (one RK 2 “Pelikan” and two RK 7 “Butterfly”) and hired three RaKa pilots for several months to train their own personnel in the USA. Two towing devices were purchased from the Italian Air Force .
Warbler
In 1927, the RK 7 “Butterfly” glider and the two-seater RK 9 “Warbler” light aircraft were added as aircraft manufacturers, six of which were used as advertising aircraft at the Sarrasani Circus . At that time the company already had 200 employees and had produced more than 100 machines.
Electron in aircraft construction
In 1928 Hall, together with Richard Bauer, who had come from Heinkel , designed the RK 25 “Ruhrland” racing aircraft , with which the Canadian John Carberry won the speed rating at the 1929 European tour and took third place overall. In order to save weight, the electron , which is little used in aircraft construction - which could only be welded in the absence of air - was used for the RK 25 . RaKa received a special award from the Reich Ministry of Transport for innovations in handling the material.
The RK 26 "Tiger Tern" was developed at the idea and order of Fieseler . In the spring of 1929 Hall switched to BFW . Richard Bauer took over the development and set about building a 40 meter long airship called the RK 27 . This made its first trip on May 4, 1929. However, since there was a lack of government contracts, export successes such as the sale of 16 RK 2 “Pelikan” to China were not enough to make the company financially successful. The last draft was the RK 29 biplane, which still took part in the 1930 European tour.
resolution
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In the spring of 1930, however, after the loans from the Kassel banks had been terminated, RaKa had to apply for the settlement procedure and was dissolved. Raab suspected, however, that the Reichswehr had "turned vigorously" in this development, since the RaKa was an "unpleasant" company that had refused to take part in military rearmament. Anatole Gobiet obtained the design and copyrights to the RK 25 and RK 26 through the bankruptcy and sold the building rights to Sweden , where the RK 26 was operated as SK 10 by the Swedish Air Force .
literature
- Gerhard Fieseler: My path in the sky . Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-01539-8 (autobiography; unabridged paperback edition of Heyne book no. 6037).
- Did the "Spitfire" originate in Kassel? In: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine . No. 143 , June 23, 1973, pp. Special page .
- Easter Monday at the Kassel airfield . In: Kassel Latest News . April 20, 1927, p. 2. Supplement .
- Rolf Nagel, Thorsten Bauer: Kassel and the aviation industry since 1923. History (s), people, technology . A. Bernecker Verlag, Melsungen 2015, ISBN 978-3-87064-147-4 .
- Antonius Raab: Raab flies - memories of an aviation pioneer . Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-922144-32-2 (autobiography).
Web links
- RK-9 "Warbler" and a short company history (Bredow-Web)
- Report on Kassel-Waldau and the history of the Waldau airfield
- 90 years of Bonn-Hangelar airfield
- Sk 10 - Raab-Katzenstein RK-26 Tiger Tern (1932–1945)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Raab flies , p. 67
- ↑ Raab flies , p. 69
- ↑ Kassel Latest News , April 20, 1927, 2nd supplement
- ^ Kassel and the aviation industry since 1923 , p. 39 ff.
- ↑ Raab flies , p. 91 ff.
- ↑ My path in the sky , p. 118
- ↑ a b HNA , June 23, 1973 , special page
- ↑ Raab flies , p. 101, p. 109
- ↑ Raab-Katzenstein - The rise and fall of the market leader . In: Fliegerrevue , November 2010, pp. 56–59