Willy A. Fiedler

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Fiedler (2nd from right) at the Kassel-Waldau major flight day in 1938

Willy Achim Fiedler (born January 23, 1908 in Freudenstadt , Black Forest; † January 17, 1998 in Los Altos Hills , California) was a German-American rocket expert (designer and test pilot).

Life

The son of a photographer completed his studies at the Technical University of Stuttgart as a graduate engineer and worked as a flight engineer and test pilot . Together with Erich Bachem he took part in gliding competitions in the Rhön.

He began his professional career at the Ruhrtaler Maschinenfabrik Schwarz & Dyckerhoff GmbH , which belonged to Bachem's father-in-law. He then worked for British Aircraft (1936) and the German Research Institute for Aviation in Berlin. In 1938 he became chief pilot of the prototype testing at the Fieseler works in Kassel. On July 9, 1941, he made the maiden flight with the Fi 256 V1 in Kassel-Waldau .

During the Second World War he played a major role in the development of the German “ retaliatory weapon ” V1 in Peenemünde , test manager, and himself flew the manned V1 flying bomb . His department in Berlin-Schönefeld was called Segelflug Reichenberg GmbH . The single-seat Fi 103 (Reichenberg III) was built in a very short time. On the airfield Lärz at Rechlin flight testing began. Fiedler himself was at the control stick when the first manned device was towed up to altitude by a He 111 . As an experienced one-flyer, he managed a smooth landing from gliding flight despite a very high landing speed. Then the further testing was taken over by various pilots such as Heinz Kensche and Hanna Reitsch .

In 1942 he co-founded the Bachem Works and in 1944 he and Erich Bachem developed the Natter , based on an idea by Wernher von Braun in 1939 . On September 1, 1944, he was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross (with swords) .

In 1948 he emigrated with his family of four to the USA to work in missile development at the United States Naval Missile Test Center in Point Mugu , initially together with Robert Lusser on the Republic-Ford JB-2 (Loon). He served as an advisor to Northrop's Regulus and SM-62 Snark .

In the summer of 1955, he and his friend Sydney Sharp attended a military-industrial conference at which the US Navy announced its intention to build larger submarines from which guided missiles could be launched. The topic of how these could be started underwater had not yet been considered. Fiedler suggested shooting them out of the tubes with compressed air and then starting the rocket motors. In 1956 he was hired by Lockheed , which had just received the development contract for the Polaris medium-range missile . He worked there in the newly established rocket and space division in Sunnyvale, became chief scientist in 1958 and helped develop the Polaris and Poseidon . In 1973 he retired.

He was married from 1937 until her death to Greta E. Fiedler, née Lange (born June 16, 1914; † August 22, 1993, daughters: Petra, Monika and Karen). In his second marriage he married Monica Lambrecht, daughter of Herbert Wagner . His records from 1933 are stored in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University .

literature

  • Wilhelm Hellmold: Die V 1. Bechtle, 1993, p. 114, p. 151.
  • Who's who in world aviation and astronautics. Volume 2, 1958, p. 158.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ),
  2. ↑ https://wabw.uni-hohenheim.de/76316
  3. ↑ http://www.fliegerweb.com/geschichte/flugzeuge/lexikon.php?show=lexikon-463
  4. ↑ http://www.aer.ita.br/~bmattos/mundo/ww2/fieseler_fi103_reichenberg.htm  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.aer.ita.br  
  5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ http://www.scientistsandfriends.com/rockets3.html
  7. ↑ http://www.losaltosonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5305&Itemid=56
  8. ↑ http://www.losaltosonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5305&Itemid=56
  9. ↑ http://cdn.calisphere.org/data/13030/hs/kt9r29s1hs/files/kt9r29s1hs.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Fiedler, Willy A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fiedler, Willy Achim (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American rocket expert
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Freudenstadt , Black Forest
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1998
Place of death Los Altos Hills , California