Gerhard Fieseler

Gerhard Fieseler (born April 15, 1896, Glesch, Germany—died September 1, 1987, Kassel) was a pioneering German aviator, aerobatic flyer, and aircraft designer.

At the outbreak of World War I, Fieseler volunteered for flying duties, which included front-line service in Romania. In July 1917, he transferred to Fighter Squadron 25 for service on the Macedonian front, where he became known as the “tiger of Macedonia.” This squadron was so demoralized—from lack of modern equipment, supplies, and leadership—that few of its pilots would even engage the enemy by the time of Fieseler’s arrival, so he soon began flying operations on his own. Despite flying in virtual isolation against superior forces, Fieseler achieved phenomenal success, with 19 confirmed and 3 unconfirmed aerial combat victories. He developed his own tactics for aerial combat, which included installing a captured Lewis gun in his Fokker DVII that fired upward at a 45° angle. In September 1918, he was decorated with the Golden Military Merit Cross, the highest award for bravery for noncommissioned officers, and he was subsequently promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

At the end of hostilities, Fieseler founded a printing works, but he was unable to resist the lure of flying. In 1925 he joined the aircraft factory of Raab-Katzenstein Flugzeugwerk GmbH, in Kassel, Germany, as a partner and flight instructor. Tasked with organizing air displays, he became convinced of the feasibility of towing gliders from powered aircraft—which he proceeded to demonstrate with three liftoffs (with the glider pilot Gottlob Espenlaub) on April 12, 1927, to the displeasure of his partner Antonius Raab.

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Expelled from Raab-Katzenstein, Fieseler then embarked on a career as an aerobatic pilot. His strength lay in inventing new and ever more difficult maneuvers, bringing him notable success in competition with the European stars of the day despite their stronger, more powerful aircraft. He was a master of inverted flight, and in 1927 he pioneered a successful inverted fuel system that enabled him to perform the first negative loop of modern aerobatic standards. This, together with the invention of countless other advanced figures, established Fieseler as the founding father of modern competition aerobatics. Among his pioneering figures were 360° turns and figures-of-eight in inverted flight, the vertical eight (an upward positive loop above a downward negative loop), and the horizontal eight (a horizontal positive loop–negative loop, later popularly known as the “spectacles”). Fieseler also went on to develop the first rolling circle, consisting of four complete slow rolls during the course of a horizontal 360° turn—one of the most difficult figures for competition pilots even with modern powerful machines.

In the years that followed, Fieseler became a leading light in European aerobatics; the aerobatic judging system he devised was the first to use coefficients of difficulty and was adopted internationally. He became the highest-paid airshow pilot in Europe, which allowed him to buy a small glider factory at Kassel. One of the first aircraft he produced was his special aerobatic machine, the Tiger, which introduced the first symmetrical airfoil (or wing section), now an essential feature of aerobatic machines. He continued to win competitions, among them the German and European championships, his crowning achievement being the winning of the Coupe Mondiale (World Cup), held in Vincennes, France, in June 1934, whereupon he ended his aerobatic career.

In 1934, at the European Challenge competition, all five Fi 97 aircraft built by Fieseler’s company were placed in top positions. With the benefit of his accumulated experience, he went on to develop the aircraft for which he became most famous, the Fi 156 Storch. Some 3,000 were manufactured, of which several are still flying.

From 1940 onward his company became increasingly involved in fighter production, principally the Bf 109 and the Fw 190. The last Fieseler design was the Fi 103, better known as the V-1 missile, which was used to devastating effect against Great Britain in World War II until Fieseler’s factory was destroyed by Allied bombing.

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Interned by U.S. forces immediately after the occupation of Kassel, Fieseler was held under harsh conditions for more than a year without being charged with any specific crime. (It appears that an honorary rank as colonel, awarded following his 1934 World Aerobatic Championship win, may have led the Allies to confuse him for a high-ranking Nazi.) During internment he developed tuberculosis and came out of prison with diminished physical and mental health. Having suffered heavy financial losses as a result of the war, Fieseler disposed of his remaining business interests in 1950, following a protracted fight with the German government over his assets. He used his remaining assets to promote the sport of aerobatic flying, which he continued to be associated with until his death.