Rudolf Mayr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolf Mayr (born May 1, 1910 in Miesbach ; † August 4, 1991 in Hamburg ) was a German flight captain and member of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 .

Life

Rudolf Mayr worked for Deutsche Lufthansa in 1938 in the Atlantic service as a pilot of a Dornier flying boat. He gained his first experience in polar regions in May 1938 on a Danish expedition led by Lauge Koch , during which he explored northeast Greenland from the air with the Dornier whale Perssuak . Due to his polar experience, he took part in the German Antarctic Expedition under the direction of Alfred Ritscher in 1938/39 as a pilot of the Dornier Wal D-ALOX Passat . This expedition explored an area of ​​around 600,000 km² from the air, which was named " Neuschwabenland ". With the measurement cameras from Passat and the other Dornier Wal Boreas under flight captain Richardheinrich Schirmacher , 11,600 aerial photos were taken during the expedition, which formed the basis for the first maps of this area. A mountain range protruding from the inland ice was named by the expedition leader Mayrkette .

During World War II Mayr served in the Air Force , where he last held the rank of captain with Kampfgeschwader 40 . For his achievements, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold on December 23, 1941 and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 18, 1943 .

After the war, Mayr was again employed by Lufthansa and was promoted to chief pilot . On August 15, 1956, he opened the Hamburg - Rio de Janeiro route with a Lockheed Super Constellation . On February 9, 1960, Mayr, together with Werner Utter, acquired the first Lufthansa captain's license for the Boeing 707 and transferred the first machine to Germany in March 1960. In 1965 he received the weather service badge of the German Weather Service .

Rudolf Mayr's descendants are basketball players Rolf Mayr (grandson) and Daniel Mayr (great grandson).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hamburger Abendblatt , August 8, 1991 edition
  2. ^ Karsten Brunk: Cartographic work and German naming in Neuschwabenland, Antarctica. German Geodetic Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Series E: History and Development of Geodesy - Issue No. 24, Part I. Frankfurt am Main, 1986 ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 391 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / 141.74.33.52
  3. ^ Directory of German names in the Antarctic ( memento from January 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 21, 2013
  4. ^ Mayrkette in the Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
  5. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 532.
  6. ↑ Airline portrait Lufthansa , accessed on November 21, 2013
  7. ↑ Roll-out of Lufthansa's first Boeing 707 ( memento of the original from June 10, 2015 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klassiker-der-luftfahrt.de
  8. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt, October 15, 1965
personal data
SURNAME Mayr, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Miesbach
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1991
Place of death Hamburg