Eugen Sänger was one of the pioneers of the VfR. Born in Bohemia in 1905, he graduated from the Technical Universities of Graz and Vienna and in 1936 he agreed to lead a rocket development team for the Third Reich with the goal of creating a sub-orbital bomber capable of attacking the United States.
In these days of technological marvels, its easy to forget just how advanced the concepts proposed by the VfR were, and its even easier to dismiss the achievements of the group due to their connection to the Nazi's. Its important when considering the merits of Germany's scientists in the 1930's to consider just how acceptable nationalism was and to ask one self whether we are able to better identify that which threatens our essential freedoms.
Whilst working for the Reich Aviation Ministry, Sänger and his wife, the mathematician Irene Bredt designed the Silbervogel (silver bird) which with its lifting body design, is undoubtably one of the fore runners to the space shuttles designs the 1970's. The Silbervogel never flew, cancelled by the cash strapped Reich Aviation Ministry in 1942, and even if it had it was flawed and would most probably have suffered a catastrophic failure on re-entry. The Silbervogel was designed to rocket up to altitude and then skip across the atmosphere in a series of undulating hops towards its destination. The Nazi's wanted to use it as a bomber against America of course, but that was never going to happen. The costs versus the advantages were against the idea of a military vehicle from the start. The aeronatutical principles of the design however were ground breaking, even if the math needed to be adjusted by several decades of subsequent research, and were enough to secure Sängers place in history.After the war, he went to work for the French where he founded the Fédération Astronautique, narrowly avoided being lured/snatched to the Soviet Union by the agents of Josef Stalin and eventually was made the first President of the International Astronautical Federation. Through out his life, Sänger remained at the fore front of conceptual propulsion and space craft design, but none of his own idea's were ever carried through to actual prototypes. Instead he became a sort of tecnological guru for others, a font of creativity from which some of the greatest engineers of the twentieth century could draw forth inspiration.
3 comments:
Very cool. I didn't even know about this guy. I liked how you said not to discount the achivements of the Germans even though they were linked or worked directly for the Nazis.
Germans sure do like to invent stuff. This guy is sort of like France's version of Von Braun.
The VfR predated the Nazi's and was forced by circumstance to accept their authority. Their problems became insurmountable when Hitler abolished German democracy because the VfR's concepts were equally good for weapons as for exploration. Essentially thats true of all technology though. Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in a carrack, a vessel just as veratile as any rocket.
I suppose if France had been richer, then Sänger might be just as well known as Von Braun, but some how I doubt it. Von Braun was good at politics, and exceptional at taking credit for other people's work (very much like Eddison). Sänger appears to have been much more reserved, a dreamer rather than a man of action.
Sorry. I meant the VfR predated the Nazi government, not the Nazi party as that was founded in 1919/20.
And a right bunch of wankers they were too!
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