Wilfried von Engelhardt

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Wilfried Baron von Engelhardt (born September 11, 1928 in Liebenberg , today Löwenberger Land , † January 14, 2015 in Linz ) was MBB's chief test pilot , first flight Bo 46 and Bo 105 . Fellow SETP. Member of the Académie de l'air et de l'espace.

life and work

Memorial plaque in the Liebenberg Castle Park

Wilfried "Fred" Baron von Engelhardt was born at Liebenberg Castle in the province of Brandenburg as the great-grandson of Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg . Through his stepfather CA von Schoenebeck, who flew in the Richthofen squadron during the First World War and was now in command of the Rechlin Air Force test center , he came into contact with aviation at an early age. Among other things, Hanna Reitsch and Ernst Udet were guests of the family.

Wilfried attended school in Mirow, near Rechlin, at 16 he was trained as a glider pilot (training on SG38 and Grunau Baby, test flight on crane, glider licenses A, B, C October 1944). In 1945 towards the end of the war he was no longer used as a fighter pilot on the Volksjäger Heinkel He 162 due to a lack of fuel. Since studying aircraft construction was forbidden in Germany and Austria, he trained at the Salzburg Higher Hotel Management School - Bad Gastein. In 1947 he graduated from high school in Linz, in 1949 he worked as a hotel specialist in the “Goldener Hirsch” in Salzburg. CA von Schönebeck, who u. a. the German Hiller agency (helicopter) enabled Engelhardt 1953–1954 to train as a helicopter mechanic in Paris, which was a first step towards becoming a test pilot. Von Engelhardt worked as an aircraft attendant in Holland in a small company from 1955 to 1956, initially unpaid. He later only accepted a small salary in exchange for learning to fly on Hiller 12B. During this time he was a professional helicopter pilot in Holland and Germany. In 1956 he completed his flight instructor training in France (Paris), then until 1960 various activities as a professional helicopter pilot and flight instructor (civil and military) on the Bell 47 and Djinn. From September 26, 1961 to August 3, 1962 deployment in Dutch New Guinea for SGONNG on Alouette II. Engelhardt was suggested as a test pilot at Ludwig Bölkow for the Bo 46 project on the recommendation of Hans Derschmidt ("He also understands something about technology" ). Engelhardt was MBB's chief test pilot from 1962–1973, then head of sales and finally head of customer service training at MBB until 1987.

Training to become a test pilot

Wilfried von Engelhardt was a graduate of the franz. EPNER test pilot school in Istres. He was trained from October 1, 1965 to July 1, 1966 and graduated as the best in his year with test pilot license No. 31.

First flight Bo 105

After the Bo 105 V1 was completely destroyed by ground resonance on September 14, 1966 at an engine speed of 90%, W. von Engelhardt repeated the first flight with the Bo 105 V2 on February 16, 1967. The first flight lasted from 5:04 p.m. to 5 p.m. 24 o'clock and went well.

Other outstanding flights

The flight numbers refer to the numbering in flight logs No. 1 and 2 by W. von Engelhardt:

• August 2, 1954, flight No. 1: First flight in a helicopter with a Hiller H12B, registration number PH-NFL
• July 23, 1957, flight no. 155: Crash with F-WHOU, SO1221 "Djinn" after colliding with a line during spray flying in Holland. After an argument with his wife, the farmer had forgotten to dismantle the line. Von Engelhardt met his first wife.
• September 30 to October 4, 1960: Flights as part of the film “Weisses Rössl” with Bell 47G
• February 14, 1964: first attempt to lift off with Bölkow Bo 46
• October 27, 1964: four successful hover flights with Bölkow Bo 46
• June 22nd, 1967, flight no.1458: first flight with GRP sheets on Aloutte III
• November 13, 1967, flight No. 1544: first flight with a titanium head in Bo 105 V2
• January 8, 1968, flight number 1568: Flight with a wounded tail rotor
• May 13, 1969, flight no.1832: high-speed testing with D-HAPE, Bo 105 V4. The entire glazing burst at 115 KIAS. The flight test engineer A. Teleki, who was present on board, was injured by splinters. The cause was the irregular and sometimes insufficient wall thickness of the plexiglass.
• September 16, 1969, flight no.1895: Emergency landing after failure of the tail rotor control during a demonstration flight with L. Galvin (Canada)
• August 10, 1970, flight no.2022: Demo flight in Bo 105 with Neil Armstrong , from 11:16 am to 11:36 am
• May 24, 1972, flight no.2105: Engine failure over Sao Paulo in a Jet Ranger. Successful autorotation landing
• February 5, 2013: Last flight with Bo 105 from Linz to Salzburg and back at the invitation of a beverage manufacturer
• April 15, 2014: Last flight in the EC135 simulator in Donauwörth at the invitation of Airbus Helicopters

Special services

• Holder of the first civil professional helicopter pilot's license in Holland
• Holder of the first civil professional helicopter pilot's license in Germany
• Together with Sigi Hoffmann, first helicopter pilot in Germany with an instrument flight license

Individual evidence

1. ↑ according to the memorial plaque, see photo. Deviating from this, January 24, 2015: Bryan Swopes: Baron Wilfried von Engelhardt Archives. Retrieved April 20, 2019 (American English).