Friedrich "Fritz" Wendel (February 21, 1915 – February 9, 1975) was a German

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

during the 1930s and 1940s.

Achievements

On 26 April 1939 Fritz Wendel set the world air speed record of , flying the

Messerschmitt Me 209 The first Messerschmitt Me 209 was a single-engine racing aircraft which was designed for and succeeded at breaking speed records. This Me 209 was a completely new aircraft whose designation was used by Messerschmitt as a propaganda tool. Alth ...

V1. He broke the record set on 30 March 1939 by Hans Dieterle flying the

Heinkel He 100 The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...

V8. Wendel's record stood for 30 years, until broken by Darryl Greenamyer in 1969. Me 209 Krakau 2010-04-24 01

The relic fuselage of the Me 209 V1 still exists in the Polish Air Museum at Krakow. On 18 July 1942 in

Leipheim Leipheim is a town in the district of Günzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the Danube, west of Günzburg, and northeast of Ulm. The village Riedheim and the hamlet Weissingen are districts of Leipheim. Since 1993, Leipheim has bee ...

near Günzburg,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, Wendel test flew the "V3" third prototype of the

Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: " Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: " Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Ge ...

jet-powered combat aircraft design. This flight was significant as it was conducted with twin

Junkers Jumo 004 The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...

jet engines for the first time. The earlier-built Me 262 V1 had flown first on 8 April 1941 with a nose-mounted

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common feat ...

Emergencies

On 5 September 1940, ''Flugkapitän'' Wendel, while performing a series of diving trials on

Me 210 The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft of World War II. Design started before the war, as a replacement for the Bf 110. The first examples were ready in 1939, but they proved to have unacceptably poor ...

V2, Werknummer 0002, ''WL-ABEO'', lost the starboard tailplane in the final dive and bailed out, the twin-engined fighter crashing in the Siebentíschwald, a section of

municipal forest A municipal forest or municipal woodland is a forest or wood owned by a town or city. Such woods often have a higher density of leisure facilities like play parks, restaurants and cafes, bridleways, cycle paths and footpaths. Unlike an urban forest ...

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, Germany. This was the first of many losses of the type.Green, William, "The Warplanes of the Third Reich", Galahad Books, New York, 1986, , , p. 611. On 25 March 1942, Wendel took the first prototype

Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German ...

V1, ''PC+UA'', on its first jet-powered flight but the experimental

BMW 003 The BMW 003 (full RLM designation 109-003) is an early axial turbojet engine produced by BMW AG in Germany during World War II. The 003 and the Junkers Jumo 004 were the only German turbojet engines to reach production during World War II. W ...

gas turbojet engines it was fitted with both failed and he was forced to limp the prototype airframe back to

on the nose-mounted Jumo 210 inverted-V12 piston engine installed for initial airframe testing. Wendel worked for Messerschmitt until the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Later life

After the war Wendel became director of a local brewery but continued flying sports planes until a circulatory ailment forced him out of the cockpit. A few days before his death he was released from hospital where he underwent treatment for the circulatory condition. Wendel was found dead at his home in

, Germany, on Sunday 9 February 1975 with a hunting rifle at his side. Police said that relatives found his body but could not rule immediately whether his death was suicide or an accident. He was 59. Wendel was survived by his wife and a 21-year-old son.United Press International, "Jet Fighter Pioneer Pilot Dies in Germany", ''Playground Daily News'', Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Monday 10 February 1975, Volume 29, Number 407, page 2A.

References

*Feist, Uwe. ''The Fighting Me 109''. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1993, .

External links

- Fritz Wendel and the Me-209-V-1(AKA Me-109R)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wendel, Fritz 1915 births 1975 deaths German aviation record holders German test pilots German World War II pilots Luftwaffe pilots Messerschmitt Me 262