Walter Rieseler

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Walter Gustav Rieseler (born December 3, 1890 in Burg ; † May 6, 1937 ) was a German aviation pioneer and inventor .

resume

Walter Rieseler was born on December 3, 1890 in Burg (near Magdeburg). He had a younger brother and sister.

Beginnings in aviation

Rieseler and Gustav Schulze made their first test flights in 1908 with a slope glider on the Gütter mountains near Burg. Schulze went to Hans Grade in Bork in 1909 , while Rieseler experimented with catapult launches on a pond island. In Schwerin, at the end of 1912 / beginning of 1913, Rieseler was involved in the construction of an Obotrit sport aircraft at the new Görries airfield . In 1913 Rieseler also trained with Hans Grade and on August 9th acquired the German FAI pilot's license No. 481 on a grade monoplane . In the following year he worked as a flight instructor at the Johannisthal airfield . During the First World War he was an acceptance pilot at the LVG in Johannisthal and a flight instructor in Köslin (Pomerania). After the war he opened a flying school at the Johannisthal airfield, which he maintained from 1919 with several aircraft from the army. The school was also attended by international students. In the course of inflation , the flight school ran into financial difficulties.

Aircraft developments

Together with his brother Werner, Rieseler developed the Rieseler RI in early 1920 . The two-cylinder sports aircraft was extensively tested in Johannisthal. One year later the R.II was created, from which the R.III developed after successful tests. Since 1922 the company Stahlwerk Mark in Breslau had the building permit for the Rieseler sports monoplane and built them until 1927 in their branch Johannisthal as Mark monoplane with own engines.

A demonstration flight of the single-seat, cantilever sports high -decker took place in June 1922 near Stockholm . The Swede Filip Bendel studied in Berlin and also took flight lessons from Rieseler. In early 1922, Bendel returned to Sweden with plans for an R.III and, with the help of a few friends, built the aircraft in a Stockholm garage. On June 2, 1922, the aircraft with a 32 hp Haacke engine was registered as S-AAR. The original machine with the registration number S-AAR is now in the Arlanda Flygsamlingar near Stockholm / Arlanda Airport

The R III / 22 sport aircraft received its German approval on December 20, 1922 by the DVL Berlin-Adlershof. On July 8, 1923 at 5 a.m. Antonius Raab made a spectacular landing in the middle of Berlin with an R III / 22 on Unter den Linden. The Rieseler brothers and pilot Heinrich Schulz took part in the Germany flight with an R.III Parasol from May 31 to June 9, 1925 . Your machine with the registration number D-628 received various awards. Ten days after the flight to Germany, Werner Rieseler had an accident while flying in Prenzlau with an R.III.

Helicopter developments

The crash of his brother Werner triggered the construction of a crash-proof aircraft. From this idea Rieseler developed a so-called rotary wing aircraft , the forerunner of a helicopter . Financed by the Hamburg banker Kojemann, the test setup of the windmill plane took place in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel. 1926 Walter Rieseler let the autogyro principle under wrench with rigid rotor blades for himself and his business partner Walter Kreiser patented . In England, the patent was recognized in 1927 - two days before the registration of the Spanish aviation pioneer Juan de la Cierva .

In 1930, the American professor Alexander Klemin from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at New York University brought Rieseler and Kreiser to the newly founded Pennsylvania Aircraft Syndicate Ltd. A test helicopter with a four-blade rotor was developed under Director Wilford. The WRK gyro (Wilford-Rieseler-Kreiser-Gyro) completed its first test flight in 1931 in Paoli , Pennsylvania .

Walter Rieseler returned to Germany in 1934 with new ideas. The Ministry of Aviation (RLM) expressed interest in the construction Walter aerator and supported further developments. In 1935 Walter Rieseler received the patent for a steep screwdriver with rigid, coaxially mounted rotors ( Koax-Rieseler ). In the same year he founded the Rieseler u. Co. Apparatebau at the Berlin-Johannisthal airfield. The first test flight of the Rieseler Helicopter RI took place in the summer of 1936. Ernst Udet , at that time an aviation expert for the RLM, took part in a demonstration flight in September. Rieseler improved and enlarged its design and carried out test flights with the Rieseler R.II helicopter in the spring of 1937.

Walter Rieseler died unexpectedly on May 6, 1937. He left behind his wife and a son.

The R.II helicopter was sold after the Rieseler u. Co. Apparatebau handed over to the German Aviation Research Institute in Berlin-Johannisthal.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth certificate No. 630/1890, archive district Jerichower Land, Burg
  2. ↑ Mecklenburgische Zeitung of June 17, 1913
  3. ↑ Aviation, year 1920, page 516.
  4. ↑ Bruno Lange: Die deutsche Luftfahrt, type manual of German aviation technology , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, page 232
  5. ^ Peter W. Cohausz: German aircraft until 1945 , Aviatic Verlag, page 140
  6. ^ Antonius Raab: Raab flies: Memories of an aviation pioneer. Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-922144-32-2
  7. ↑ Der Luftweg, year 1925, issue 12, pages 129-131
personal data
SURNAME Rieseler, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rieseler, Walter Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aviation pioneer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Castle (near Magdeburg)
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1937