Personal: Male.

German sport flier and aircraft manufacturer.

6 July 1939 - Wernher von Braun proposed to the German Reich Air Ministry a "fighter with rocket drive".. The vertical take-off interceptor would reach 8 km altitude in 53 seconds and then manoeuvre toward the aircraft to be intercepted. The design was developed further by Fieseler as the Fi-166, which retained the rocket takeoff but used a turbojet for a longer cruising flight. The Ministry finally rejected the vertical-takeoff rocket interceptor concept at the end of 1941. The concept was revived at the end of the war as the Bachem Natter.

• Michels, Juergen and Przybilski, Olaf, Peenemuende und seine Erben in Ost und West, Bernard & Graefe, Bonn, 1997. ISBN: 3763759603. Marvelous German language book traces the 'technology transfer' from the Peenemuende refugees to the rocketry programs of America, Russia, Germany, and other countries. More at amazon.com...