Raab-Katzenstein was a 1920s
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
aircraft manufacturer based in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
.
History
The main character of the company was its designer
Gerhard Fieseler
Gerhard Fieseler (15 April 1896 – 1 September 1987) was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer.
From birth to the 1918 armistice
Born in Glesch (near Cologne), Fieseler joined the Air Serv ...
. Following
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he returned to printing, but yearned to return to flying. In 1926, he closed his print shop in
Eschweiler
Eschweiler (, Ripuarian: ) is a municipality in the district of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Belgian-Dutch border, and about east of Aachen and west of Cologne.
History
* Celts (fir ...
and became a flight instructor with Raab-Katzenstein and continued to hone his flying skills, becoming an accomplished stunt pilot. In 1927, he performed a particularly daring routine in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
and started to command increasingly high fees for appearances. In 1928 while working at Raab-Katzenstein, he designed his own stunt plane, the
Fieseler F1
Raab-Katzenstein RK-26 Tigerschwalbe, also known as the Fieseler F 1 Tigerschwalbe, was a German twin-seat biplane trainer aircraft designed by Gerhard Fieseler by the end of the 1920s.
Design and development
In December 1930, Fieseler was invite ...
(also known as the
Raab-Katzenstein RK-26 Tigerschwalbe
Raab-Katzenstein RK-26 Tigerschwalbe, also known as the Fieseler F 1 Tigerschwalbe, was a German twin-seat biplane trainer aircraft designed by Gerhard Fieseler by the end of the 1920s.
Design and development
In December 1930, Fieseler was invite ...
), which was offered and sold to a Swedish company called AB Svenska Järnvägverkstaderna (ASJA), which built 25 of the type for Swedish Air Force in the beginning of the 1930s.
[
In 1930, Raab-Katzenstein was bankrupt, and Fieseler decided to strike out on his own. Using money he had been saving from his aerobatics, he bought the ]Segelflugzeugbau Kassel
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 ...
sailplane
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...
factory and renamed it Fieseler Flugzeugbau
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 o ...
.[
]
Aircraft
Data from German Aviation 1919-1945[
* KL.1 Schwalbe
* RK.2 Pelikan
* RK.6 Kranich
* RK.7 Schmetterling
* RK.8 Marabu
* RK.9 Grasmücke
* RK.22 Ente
* RK.25 Ruhrland
* RK.26 Tigerschwalbe
* RK.27
* RK.29 Deutsche Motte
]
See also
*AEKKEA-RAAB
The history of AEKKEA (''Anonymos Etaireia Kataskevis Kai Ekmetallefseos Aeroplanon'' - ''Societe Anonyme Pour la Fabrication et l'Exploitation des Avions Raab''), an aircraft maker based in Greece, is connected with the history of a talented Ger ...
*Volksflugzeug
The ''Volksflugzeug'' (People's Aircraft) was a grand Nazi-era scheme for the mass-production of a small and simple airplane in the 1930s. It was one of the attempts of the Nazi regime to use consumer technologies as a propaganda tool.
Unlike th ...
References
External links
90 Jahre Flugplatz Bonn-Hangelar
(history of Bonn-Hangelar mentioning Raab-Katzenstein, German)
{{Raab-Katzenstein aircraft
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany
Companies based in Kassel