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Note: This article would go to March 8 or rather the "International Women's Day", but for personal reasons I could not do it / upload it the same day, hope you can understand, thank you.

But first I want to dedicate this article to two people:

To my great-grandmother Celia, who was with me for many years, may she rest in peace ~ December 27, 1932-25 February 2018 ~ Thank you for everything, good bye o7 ~

To Bernhard Heuer, last survivor of the sinking of the "Bismarck" ~ July 30, 1922 - March 8, 2018 ~ May you rest peace hero o7 ~

My maximum respect for both

Now yes, we go with the article

In this special I will talk about a specific woman, Hanna Reitsch.


Hanna

Born on March 29, 1912, in a small city (now Polish) Hirschberg, was a celebrated aviator of the Luftwaffe for her records that she obtained in her career.

She was the daughter of a wealthy family of the German bourgeoisie, her father was an ophthalmologist. Of somewhat fragile appearance and with 1.50 ms of stature and barely 40 kg of weight. Hanna Reitsch showed determination from an early age, since she was 13 years old and dreamed of flying and wished to be a flying missionary doctor. When she had free time, she went by bicycle to Granau to see the flight of the gliders.

Since 1932 she studied Medicine in Berlin and in Kiel. Along with her study he enrolled to fly gliders and airplanes in 1932, where she took a course in Grunen's flightless school. In that same place she coincided and established a friendship that lasted almost all his life with who would be the father of the space race, Werner von Braun.

She was the only woman in the group and, although she crashed on the first takeoff, her teachers soon realized she was the best of her class. Shortly before the final exam, she achieved the female glider resistance record by staying longer in the air. In fact, that same year she managed to establish her first air record: it was one of duration in a glider for women with 5.5 hours in the air. These acquired experiences and developed talents would be very useful in the future.

In 1933 Hanna Reitsch was hired by Wolf Hirth as a flight teacher at her new glider flight school in Hornberg, near Schwäbisch Gmünd. From 1933 to 1934 she participated in a research expedition in Brazil and Argentina and interrupted her studies after four semesters due to the insatiable desire to fly. Since June of that same year, Hanna Reitsch has worked as a test pilot for the German Commission for the Promotion of the Glider Flight (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug) in Darmstadt.


Magazine "El Grafico" showing Hanna in a cover of her trip to Buenos Aires

In 1937 Hanna Reitsch flew over the Alps in a glider being the first woman to do so. She was also the first woman to fly the helicopter built by Henrich Focke called Focke-Wulf Fw 61. With this device, the first helicopter flight was made in 1938 at the "Deutschlandhalle" in Berlin. She also held the record for the German glider flight competition with the Sylt-Breslau (Silesia) flight.


Hanna in her Fw 61

A year later, Hanna Reitsch set the world record for a glider flight.

In 1942 Reitsch flew in Augsburg the first rocket plane in the world, the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, and participated in the tests of the flying bomb called Fieseler Fi-103 V-1, which would later be launched over London.

Since the winter of 1943-1944 she became one of the most adherent promoters of National Socialism. In this way, he acceded to the intimate circles of Hitler, who held her in high esteem.


Hanna with Hitler in his bunker, 1945.

She participated in the development of the German suicide plane Selbstopfer-Flugzeuge. This project, which Hitler later canceled in February 1944, considered that the so-called "human bombs", in which the death of the pilot was assured in exchange for achieving the objective, was an unnecessary loss. "Kamikazes" (Or also the "Okha" did take place.

In the framework of his work as a test pilot for the German Air Force (Deutsche Luftwaffe), Reitsch was often injured and wounded in service. For her services to the German nation, she was awarded the First Class Iron Cross and the Second Class Iron Cross (the Iron Cross of the First, as the only woman to whom she was awarded in the history of Germany), and she was also awarded the Military Diamond of Gold with Diamonds.


Hanna enthusiastically showing her two decorations.

Reitsch managed to escape the Russians falling into American hands in May 1945.

In 1951 she published her autobiography entitled Mein Leben (The Sky is my Kingdom).

After the Second World War, German citizens were forbidden to fly by plane, then this ban was relaxed and the glider flight was allowed. In 1952 in a world flight glider competition that took place in Spain, Hanna Reitsch achieved the third position (being the only woman who participated in the event). Since 1954 she worked as a test pilot in Darmstadt, this time for the newly founded German Commission for the Promotion of Gliding Flight (DVL).

From 1962 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, where she worked for the president of that African country Kwame Nkrumah and founded a flight school in glider, which she later directed. In the seventies he managed to set several records in different categories.

Hanna Reitsch flew until her last days. She died on August 28, 1979 at the age of 67 in Frankfurt am Main due to heart problems.

Reitsch established more than 40 world records of height and speed, which have not yet been matched by any other woman.

Sorry for the wait but I've a lot stuff


And with this I finish my article for today, my most beautiful greeting and happy womans day!! .

~ KMS Bismarck

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