Richard Wagner (pilot)

Richard Wagner (born June 22, 1893 in Kiel , † March 28, 1935 aviator death on the Simssee / Bavaria ) was a German pilot. He was the chief airman at Dornier Metallbauten GmbH .

Life

Richard Wagner came on August 7, 1914 at the beginning of the First World War after a four-year apprenticeship in mechanical and explosion engine construction as a volunteer to the 1st Sea Aviation Department in Kiel-Holtenau . There he became a flight instructor and was stationed on the Aegean Sea during the war years of 1917 and 1918 . From 1923 Wagner was employed as a one-flyer for Dornier Metallbauten GmbH in Marina di Pisa / Italy and in 1925 he moved to the Dornier parent plant in Friedrichshafen .

In the years 1924 to 1928 Richard Wagner set some flying world records on the flying boats of the Dornier-Wal series , which drew the attention of the professional world to him.
On August 27, 1924, he transferred the Spanish whale W 7 from Marina di Pisa to Melilla in ten hours and 39 minutes (1575 km = 151 km / h) without stopping .
With Guido Guidi , he set 20 class records for seaplanes with the whale in February 1925 . They use the  16th whale built in Pisa, equipped with 360 HP Rolls-Royce Eagle IX engines, before its delivery to Spain. In a flight over 500 km with a 1500 kg payload, 168.525 km / h were achieved, which was at the same time a record over 100 km and 200 km and was also a record with a payload of 1000/500/250 kg, i.e. twelve records, plus distance records with 507.38 km with 1500 and 1000 kg payload, and with 1500 kg payload still an altitude record of 3682 m and a continuous record of 6h 33min 35s. Four further records were set with a payload of 2000 kg: over 100 km was reached 133.781 km / h, over 200 km 134.514 km / h, a distance of 253.69 km and an altitude of 3005 m could be reached.
Between January 20 and February 5, 1928, the Dornier chief pilot set twelve world records for seaplanes off Friedrichshafen with an R4 Gas Superwal . The machine, equipped with four 480 hp Gnome-et-Rhône-Jupiter engines in two tandem gondolas, first flew 100 km at 209.546 km / h with a payload of 4000 kg. On January 23, an altitude record of 2,845 m was set with the same payload, and it was followed - again with the same payload - speed records of over 500 km with 179.416 km / h and over 1000 km with 177.279 km / h, with a payload of 4000 kg Distance record on a closed course of 1000.160 km and an endurance record of 6:01:56 h were achieved. Since some of these performances were also top performances for lower payloads, Dornier and the engine designer Bristol were able to advertise with twelve world records.

On July 12, 1929, the Dornier chief pilot made the maiden flight with the then newly developed flying ship Do X near Altenrhein on Lake Constance , although initially only a test of maneuverability without a flight was planned.

During an emergency landing of a whale flying boat on the Simssee near Rosenheim , Richard Wagner had a fatal accident on March 28, 1935 because of the flat water situation feared by sea pilots, because he misjudged the height of the landing approach.

literature

• Jörg-Michael Hormann , Evelyn Zegenhagen: German aviation pioneers 1900–1950 , aviation pioneers. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-2484-2
• Jörg-Michael Hormann: Airship DO-X: the chronicle . Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-7688-1841-4
• Jörg-Michael Hormann: A ship flies into the world: 75 years of the Dornier flying ship Do X D-1929 . Deutsche Post AG, Bonn 2004, ISBN 978-3-00-014367-0

Web links

• Aviation history - megalomania high X article on Spiegel Online - one day
• “DORNIER DO X: LEGENDARY FLYING BOAT” FLUG REVUE, July 1999, page 16