Erich Bachem (12 August 1906, in

Mülheim an der Ruhr Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many compan ...

– 25 March 1960) was a German engineer. In the 1930s Erich Bachem designed the ''Aero-Sport'' camping trailer built from plywood by the

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

company

Wolf Hirth Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth (28 February 1900 – 25 July 1959) was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer.Segelflugbildkalendar 2011 Hirth was born in Stuttgart, ...

Kirchheim unter Teck Kirchheim unter Teck ( Swabian: ''Kircha'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in the district of Esslingen. It is located on the small river Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar. It is 10 km (6 miles) near the Teck castle, approximately ...

. Until 1942 Bachem served as technical director for the aircraft manufacturer

Fieseler The Gerhard Fieseler Werke (GFW) in Kassel was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. History The firm was founded on ...

. In February 1942 he founded Bachem-Werke GmbH, a supplier of spare parts for the aircraft industry, in Waldsee,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. In 1944, he designed for the SS the vertical take-off manned

rocket plane A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typicall ...

Bachem Ba 349 The Bachem Ba 349 Natter ( en, Colubrid, grass-snake) was a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile. After a vertical take-off, which eliminated ...

''Natter''. The only manned test flight on 1 March 1945 ended with pilot

Lothar Sieber Lothar Sieber (7 April 1922 – 1 March 1945) was a German test pilot who was killed in the first vertical take-off manned rocket flight, in a Bachem Ba 349 "Natter". Before he became a test pilot for Bachem, he piloted an Arado Ar 232 in hig ...

being killed. In 1947/48 Erich Bachem left Germany through Denmark and Sweden in order to settle in Argentina. Possibly he wished to escape US agents who planned to send him to the USA with Wernher von Braun's group as part of Operation Overcast. In Argentina, among other things, he constructed a factory for guitars with interchangeable bottoms. In 1952 Bachem returned to Germany to become technical director for the company of his father-in-law Heinrich Wilhelm Schwarz, Ruhrthaler Maschinenfabrik Schwarz & Dyckerhoff GmbH, in

Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many compan ...

. There he developed the modern streamlined mine locomotive ''Ruhrthaler Vollsicht'' along with various other pieces of mining machinery and long-distance diesel locomotives. He occupied this position until his untimely death. From 1957, together with

Erwin Hymer Erwin Hymer (27 July 1930 – 12 April 2013) was a German businessman, and the founder of the motorhome manufacturer Hymer. In 2000 he received Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of ...

Hymer Hymer AG is a motorhome and caravan manufacturer, located in Bad Waldsee, Germany. One of the largest manufacturers of motorhomes and caravans in Europe, the listed company Hymer AG owns several brands, including; Burstner, Carado, Sunlight ...

, he designed camping trailers sold as Eriba (Erich Bachem, or possibly Erika Bachem after his wife) with names like ''

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

'', '' Puck'', ''Touring'', ''

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

''.

Publications

* ''Die Praxis des Leistungs-Segelfliegens.'' Berlin: Volckmann 1932, 2. Auflage 1936 * ''Das Problem des Schnellstfluges.'' Stuttgart: Franckh 1933 * Beitrag in: ''Probleme aus der astronautischen Grundlagenforschung'', hrsg. v. Heinz H. Koelle, 1952

References

Bibliography

*Gooden, Brett. ''Natter: Manned Missile of the Third Reich: Historic Step to Human Spaceflight''. Rundle Mall, Australia: Brett Gooden, 2019. * Nachrufartikel in: Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt: ''Jahrbuch'', Jg. 1960, S. 479 * Volker Hammermeister, ''Die Legende lebt'', in: Caravaning, Heft 2/2007, S. 12f (auc
online

External links

Eriba France

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachem, Erich Bachem aircraft Aircraft designers Engineers from North Rhine-Westphalia 1906 births 1960 deaths People from Mülheim