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Title: Gone West — Me-163 Test Pilot Rudolf “Rudy” Optiz (1910-2010)
Source:
Experimental Aircraft Association
URL Source: http://www.eaa.org/news/2010/2010-05-06_opitz.asp
Published: May 6, 2010
Author: EAA
Post Date: 2010-05-06 22:45:13 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 126
Comments: 5
May 6, 2010 —Rudolf “Rudy” Opitz passed away at his home in Connecticut last week at the age of 99. Born in Germany in 1910, Opitz learned to fly gliders as a teenager, and by the mid-1930s was working as a glider instructor at the Wasserkuppe flying school. After the outbreak of World War II, Opitz was drafted into the Luftwaffe as a glider instructor. He was later assigned as a test pilot to Alexander Lippisch and began working as a test pilot on Lippisch’s tail-less glider designs. In 1941 he was assigned to Project X, the Luftwaffe’s top secret program to develop the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, the world’s first rocket interceptor. As Chief Military Test Pilot on Project X, Opitz made numerous flights in Me-163a and Me-163b interceptors. Although he did not fly any official combat missions in the 163, he did become Commander of the Me-163 equipped Second Group of JG400 towards the end of the war. After the war he was recruited by “Operation Paperclip” - the American effort to bring German scientists to the U.S. - to come to work as an engineer and test pilot at the Aeronautical Research and Development Center at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Opitz later worked for Avco-Lycoming and retired after a 20-year career with the company. In 1984, Optiz was elected and certified by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots as an Honorary Fellow, and in 1994 was inducted into the United States Soaring Hall of Fame by the Soaring Society of America. He served as an FAA pilot examiner for over thirty years, and remained active in soaring in his later years. April 30, 2010 Lucy's first glider flight. Her instructor (Rudy Opitz) was a Chief Test Pilot in the German Luftwaffe in WWII. He flew the Komet 163. The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, designed by Alexander Martin Lippisch, was a German rocket-powered fighter aircraft. As of 2009, it remains the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft to have ever been operational. Its design was revolutionary, and the plane was capable of performance unrivalled at the time. Messerschmitt test pilot Rudy Opitz in 1944 reached 1,123 km/h (698 mph).
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "You've got to put right and wrong above legal and illegal. Because when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty; and it is not rebellion at all, it is submission to the higher law that our government is in rebellion to. We're not the rebels, they're the rebels."
Friend of mine was a design engineer with Messerschmidt but was not asked to come to the US because he had a friend in Hitlers inner circle. He came on his own in the 1950s but could never land a job with any aircraft company.
I know, "recruited" is a laughable way of putting it. But, it beat the hell out of hanging around in a destitute and impoverished Germany for the first few years after the war: the men were prohibited from working in the field they were in as a participant in the Third Reich. I'm glad America was able to benefit from the scientific knowledge imparted to our country rather than let the Russians get the whole gang. Werner von Braun and his cohorts put us on the moon: (von Braun w/JFK) _________________________________________________________________________ Himmler had Von Braun arrested and jailed, Albert Speer got him sprung.
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "You've got to put right and wrong above legal and illegal. Because when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty; and it is not rebellion at all, it is submission to the higher law that our government is in rebellion to. We're not the rebels, they're the rebels."
#2. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
recruited
#3. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
Obama is the miscegenated bastard of a white communist whore. True story.
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#4. To: X-15 (#3)
#5. To: X-15 (#3)
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