Alexander Lippisch
| Alexander Lippisch | |
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Alexander Lippisch, with Günther Grönhoff in the cockpit of the Storch V.
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| Born |
November 2, 1894 Munich, German Empire |
| Died | February 11, 1976 (aged 81) Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US |
| Nationality | German |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | Messerschmitt Me 163 |
| Significant advance | first delta wing to fly first mass-produced rocket fighter |
Alexander Martin Lippisch (November 2, 1894 – February 11, 1976) was a German aeronautical engineer, a pioneer of aerodynamics who made important contributions to the understanding of flying wings, delta wings and the ground effect, and also worked in the U.S. His most famous designs are the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor and the strange-looking Aerodyne.
Lippisch was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. He later recalled that his interest in aviation began with a demonstration conducted by Orville Wright over Tempelhof Field in Berlin in September 1909. Nonetheless, he planned to follow his father’s footsteps into art school, until the outbreak of World War I intervened. During his service with the German Army in 1915–1918 Lippisch had the chance to fly as an aerial photographer and mapper.
Following the war, Lippisch worked with the Zeppelin Company, and it was at this time that he first became interested in tailless aircraft. In 1921 his first design to be built, by his friend Gottlob Espenlaub, was the Espenlaub E-2 glider. This was the beginning of a research programme that would result in some fifty designs throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Lippisch’s growing reputation saw him appointed in 1925 as the director of the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft (RRG), a glider organisation including research groups and construction facilities.
Lippisch also designed conventional gliders at this time, including the Wien of 1927 and its successor the Fafnir of 1930. In 1928 Lippisch’s tail-first Ente (Duck) became the first aircraft to fly under rocket power. From 1927 he resumed his tailless work, leading to a series of designs named Storch I – Storch IX (Stork I-IX), mostly gliders. These designs attracted little interest from the government and private industry.
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