Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff (February 11, 1908 – December 2, 1987) was a rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at the Peenemünde Army Research Center (1939–1945). Ernst Steinhoff saw National Socialist (Nazi) doctrines as "ideals" and became a member of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in May 1937. He was a

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 gliding ...

pilot, holding distance records, and had the honorary Luftwaffe rank of "Flight Captain". Ernst Steinhoff earned his PhD at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (today Technische Universität Darmstadt) in 1940 with a dissertation on aviation instruments. His younger brother Friedrich Steinhoff assisted rocket experiments while commanding in 1942. Ernst was among the scientists to surrender and travel to the United States to provide rocketry expertise via

Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...

. Friedrich was captured aboard and committed suicide in a Boston jail before Ernst came to the United States on the first boat, November 16, 1945. with

and

Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

(1945-1949). He then moved to Holloman Air Force Base where he also worked closely with

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...

in New Mexico. He focused on guidance, control, and range instrumentation throughout his career. He was awarded the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service in 1958 for his contributions to the US rocket program. Stuhlinger, E., Ordway, F.I., McCall, J.C., and Bucher, G.C. (1963) ''Aeronautical Engineering and Science'', McGraw-Hill. In 1979 he was inducted into the New Mexico

International Space Hall of Fame The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of ...

. Steinhoff is being credited as one of the first pioneers to popularize the concept of space resource utilization for Mars exploration. He became the first chairman of Working Group on Extraterrestrial Resources (WGER). As of 1981, Mrs. Dixie Cantwell of Alamogordo, NM, was working on researching and writing the biography of "Alamogordo's well-known scientist, Dr. Ernest A Steinhoff". The status of said biography, and its progress remains unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinhoff, Ernst German aerospace engineers Nazi Party members Glider pilots German emigrants to the United States German rocket scientists German spaceflight pioneers 1908 births 1987 deaths Operation Paperclip Glider flight record holders German aviation record holders Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni People from Schwalmstadt Engineers from Hesse