Rudolf Becker (entrepreneur)

Rudolf Becker (born June 11, 1937 in Worms ) was the manager of the Cosmos company and owner of the aircraft restaurant in Darmstadt .

Career

Rudolf Becker, the second of four children to a married couple who worked in the agricultural sector, passed his journeyman's examination as a car mechanic in 1956 at the Mainz Chamber of Crafts . After one year at the Opel factory in Rüsselsheim , at MAN Gustavsburg in the passenger lifts department and at an automobile manufacturer in Bremen , Becker took retraining in Alzey to become an automobile salesman.

Douglas DC-4

Becker, who grew up in Freimersheim (Rheinhessen) , made the first headlines when he acquired the retired Douglas DC-4 aircraft for 38,000 DM in 1969 . His ambitious plan was to open a restaurant in this propeller airplane, so that Whitsun 1970 was the first time to lay down, but Becker tried to do this on his own, which is why engineers and responsible people laughed at him and warned him that this action was shipyard work and Becker was earlier or later should be slain by the old steel colossus. Nevertheless, Becker managed to assemble and dismantle the plane within a year. Then the transport to the parking lot in Darmstadt on Eschollbrücker Straße was due, but one bridge was too low for the DC-4 with a low loader to pass the federal highway 5 . Becker contacted the US Army to have them lift the plane over the bridge with their helicopters. This was also feasible, but this would damage the houses in the area: the propellers of the helicopters would have blown away the bricks lying nearby. With the help of the US Army, Becker had to transport the DC-4 across the villages to the parking lot in Darmstadt so that the aircraft restaurant could open its doors in 1972.

Business was booming, the idea of ​​opening a restaurant on an airplane was considered innovative. Over time, fashion shows were even held on the plane. The DC-4 and the restaurant had to be transported to Darmstadt's Rheinstrasse because the supermarket added value , on whose parking lot the airplane café was located, was converted to value purchase . After two years, a new location had to be found, so that Becker dismantled the aircraft and rebuilt it in Lampertheim , but authorities and offices thwarted Becker's plan when they planned to build a self-service petrol station at this very location . In the end, Becker was left with the scrapping of the DC-4 and with it the end of the famous aircraft restaurant in the mid-1970s.

Becker became aware of the fire protection industry as early as 1973. After training at Total in Ladenburg , Becker advanced to become an expert and, over the years, managed to become the company director of Cosmos in Darmstadt. After the group was sold in 1998, Becker has been running a small company in the fire protection technology branch since then.