Hans-Werner Grosse (28 November 1922 – 18 February 2021) was a German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

bomber pilot and

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 ...

pilot who established 50 world records approved by

FAI Gliding Commission The International Gliding Commission (IGC) is the international governing body for the sport of gliding. It is governed by meetings of delegates from national gliding associations. It is one of several Air Sport Commissions (ASC) of the Fédéra ...

Early life

Grosse was born in Swinemünde, now Świnoujście in Poland, in 1922. In 1936 he learned to fly on a

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

school

. He crashed once during his training and was seriously injured. At the age of 21 he became a power pilot and flew

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

bombers in the Mediterranean theatre. He was shot down in a

Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast f ...

torpedo-bomber over the Mediterranean on 6 June 1944. He ditched at night with a burning engine 35 km south of Toulon. After some time in hospital in Paris, he was sent to Norway to fly Ju 88s against the

Arctic Convoy The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...

s. After the war he settled in Lübeck. From 1950 he set up a regional specialist shop for jeans, other trousers and outerwear at Königstrasse 85, which he named ''Manchester Große'' after the fabric used for

corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...

trousers.

Gliding career

Grosse's free distance world record of from his home city of

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

(

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

) to

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...

(

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) was set on 25 April 1972 in a Schleicher ASW 12. After starting in Lübeck, and eleven and a half hours in flight, he landed in Biarritz in southwestern France. He held this record for more than 30years. It was not broken until 9 January 2003 (by

Klaus Ohlmann Klaus Ohlmann (born 1952 in Neustadt, Germany)) is a German glider pilot who has established 36 world records approved by FAI. Among these is the record for a free distance flight with up to 3 turn-points by flying 3,009 km from Chapelco Airpor ...

in Argentina). Grosse has offered a €750 prize for youth pilots who manage to exceed his flight within Europe. In an interview, Grosse said he could have flown farther, but he didn't want to risk flying into Spain at dusk without the appropriate licence. This record was far from his only success. He has held a total of 50 gliding world records. Among his other world records were: the largest triangular distance ( in 1981), the fastest speed round a triangle ( in 1980) and the fastest speed round a triangle ( also in 1980). These record flights started from

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

, Australia. He came second in the

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern ...

in 1970. He was awarded the

Lilienthal_Gliding_Medal Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in 1938 in honour of Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer of human aviation. It aims "to reward a particularly rema ...

in 1970. For his 75th birthday, Grosse was named an honorary member of the German National Gliding Team of the FAI League due to his outstanding performance in the sport of gliding. He was presented this certificate, which is unique up to this time, by the President of the International Gliding Commission (IGC) and Director of the World Gliding Championships 1999 in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

, Professor Peter Ryder, at the birthday celebration on 29 November 1997. Grosse was also an honorary member of the ''Deutscher AeroClub e.V.'' and the chief initiator of the

Eta Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

project. He himself owned the first model of this glider, which is still the largest glider in the world (30.90 m wingspan) and features a performance rivaled by just a handful of other gliders today. His commitment to gliding is also shown by the establishment of the project, "''Jugendfördernde Maßnahmen Ost''" (Measures to Support Youth East). In this project, Grosse made his high-performance

Schleicher ASH 25 The ASH 25 is a two-seater high performance Open Class glider manufactured by Alexander Schleicher from 1986 until September 2008, originally with a 25-metre wingspan. It was superseded in production by the ASH 30. Design and development In ...

glider available to young glider pilots in organisations in eastern Germany for the purpose of making it possible for the new generation of glider pilots to fly with modern equipment which would not usually be available to them. Grosse died on 18 February 2021 at the age of 98.www.aerokurier.de
Retrieved: 19 February 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosse, Hanswerner 1922 births 2021 deaths German aviation record holders German aviators Glider flight record holders Glider pilots Lilienthal Gliding Medal recipients People from the Province of Pomerania People from Świnoujście German World War II bomber pilots Hitler Youth members Luftwaffe pilots Shot-down aviators