Walter Blume (designer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Blume (born January 10, 1896 in Hirschberg in the Riesengebirge , † May 27, 1964 in Duisburg ) was a German fighter pilot and aircraft designer. During the Second World War he was involved in the development of the first combat zone transporter and the first two and four-engine jet bombers at the Arado aircraft factory. He later played a key role in the development of the twin-engine Transall transport aircraft, which is still in active service today .

Walter Blume in front of his Fokker D.VII

Life

Before the First World War

After graduating from high school in Hirschberg, he worked as an engineering intern in a machine factory from spring 1914.

First World War

From August 4, 1914, Walter Blume served with the Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5 as a war volunteer. On September 19, he moved to Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 21 on the Eastern Front. After being wounded by a gunshot in the thigh on October 24, 1914 near Lyck in East Prussia, he was assigned to the battalion's training unit as head hunter . During this time he volunteered for the air force , was trained as a pilot from June 30, 1915 at the Aviation Replacement Department in Großenhain and at the Leipzig-Mockau Aviation School , and passed the field pilot examination on March 30, 1916. After completing his training, he came to the Western Front, first at the West Experimental and Training Park near Saint-Quentin , and then from March 24th at Army Aircraft Park A near Strasbourg . From June 18, 1916 to January 20, 1917, Blume was in action for Field Aviation Department No. 65 with aviation two-seaters near Schlettstadt and was promoted to Deputy Sergeant in August 1916.

After his self-requested transfer to Jasta 26 and the appointment to lieutenant on January 31, 1917, he scored his first downing of an opposing aircraft on May 10, 1917 at Gouzeaucourt . In this season, for which he achieved a total of 6 aerial victories on Albatros aircraft, he served under Lieutenant Bruno Loerzer .

After another war injury to his chest on November 29, 1917, after more than three months of recovery, on March 9, 1918, he moved to Feldfliegerabteilung 13 in Bromberg and from there to Jasta 9 on the Western Front, where he shot down another 22 enemy aircraft by the end of the war . There he succeeded the first lieutenant and later colonel general of the air force Kurt Student as commander .

On August 7, 1918, Blume received the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern . On September 30, 1918, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite , the highest Prussian honor for bravery. With 28 confirmed kills, Walter Blume is one of the most successful German fighter pilots of the First World War. After his squadron was demobilized, Blume ended his military service on January 15, 1919.

Between the wars

After the First World War, Walter Blume studied at the TH Hannover and completed his training as a qualified engineer in 1922. During his studies he was involved in the construction of the Vampyr glider as a student of Georg Hans Madelung . In 1925 he took part in the first flight to Germany after the war .

When Walter Blume joined Albatros Flugzeugwerke in Berlin-Johannisthal as chief designer in November 1926, he took the decisive step for his future career as an aircraft designer, after he had previously been involved in the secret armament of the Reichswehr at the Army Weapons Office .

On January 1, 1932, he moved to Arado Flugzeugwerke , where he was appointed technical director, from summer 1933 first director, later operator of the branch in Warnemünde and from December 1935 head of the development department. At that time the Ar 66 was in development.

Second World War

In addition to other projects and extensive license production, the trend-setting aircraft Ar 232 (military transporter) and Ar 234 (jet-turbine-powered reconnaissance aircraft / bomber) were developed to series production under Walter Blum's leadership .

post war period

At the end of the war, Blume came to the western zone and was employed by the aluminum headquarters in Düsseldorf , the publisher of the relevant specialist body for the light metal industry.

From October 1952, the city of Duisburg provided him with rooms in the Ruhrort building (“thousand-window house”) for the Blume office (Leichtbau und Flugtechnik GmbH), which was planned as the “nucleus of the North Rhine-Westphalian aircraft industry”.

Six engineers were already employed for the construction of the four-seater Blume Bl 500 touring aircraft and a transport aircraft and an area of ​​41,000 m² was selected for the construction of an aircraft factory with 2000 employees. However, in the course of 1955 it turned out that the North Rhine-Westphalian approaches to an aircraft industry would not be taken into account when the new air force was first equipped . The Blume Bl 500 was then built in two test copies at Focke-Wulf in Bremen.

Under pressure from the Federal Ministry of Economics in September 1955, Walter Blume and his Blume office joined the aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf. The company was involved in the development of the Transall C-160 under the name of Blume-Leichtbau und Flugtechnik .

Services

Along with Willy Messerschmitt , Kurt Tank , Richard Vogt and Ernst Heinkel, Walter Blume was one of the most important designers of German aircraft construction during the Second World War.

Awards

See also

literature

  • Rolf Roeingh: Aviator of the World War . Air Force Command Staff Ic / VIII, Berlin 1941
  • Walter Zuerl: German aircraft designers. Career and successes of our aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturers . Pechstein, Munich 1938, p. 236-248 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Blume  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Lutz Budraß , Dag Krienen and Stefan Prott: Not just specialists. (PDF) The human capital of the German aircraft industry in industrial and location policy in the post-war period. Research center on the history of the German aerospace industry, accessed on June 21, 2015 .
  • Stefan Prott and Lutz Budraß: dismantling and conversion. (PDF) On the integration of armaments industrial capacities in technology-political strategies in post-war Germany. Research center on the history of the German aerospace industry, accessed on June 21, 2015 .
  • Helge Kurt-Werner Dittmann: Flower, Walter. In: History - Portraits. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012 ; accessed on June 21, 2015 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Roeingh: Aviators of the World War . Luftwaffe Command Staff Ic / VIII, Berlin 1941, p. 48
  2. ↑ Walter Blume. In: Aces. The Aerodrome, accessed December 8, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Fokker D VII Aces of World War 1: Part 2 - p. 64 and p. 65, accessed on January 13, 2009
  4. ^ Zuerl, page 238
  5. ^ Air Service Awards During World War I. (No longer available online.) Gretchen Winkler and Kurt M. von Tiedemann, archived from the original on December 12, 2015 ; Retrieved on June 21, 2015 (English): "Leutnant Walter Blume awarded on Sept. 30, 1918. (28 victories)" 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.pourlemerite.org
  6. ^ History of German commercial aircraft construction: The long way to the Airbus : p. 40, accessed on January 13, 2009
  7. ↑ Commercial Aircraft of the World ... (PDF) Transall C-160. In: FLIGHT International, November 28, 1963. Flightglobal.com, November 23, 1963, p. 892 , accessed on June 21, 2015 (English): “Participants, grouped under the name Transall, are Nord Aviation for France, and Hamburger Aircraft construction. Weser Flugzeugbau and Blume-Leichtbau und Flugtechnik for Germany. "
  8. ↑ Helmut Maier: Armaments research in National Socialism. Wallstein Verlag, 2002, accessed on December 8, 2010 (p. 149 and p. 170): "The« big four »"
personal data
SURNAME Blume, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aircraft designer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Hirschberg
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1964
Place of death Duisburg