Walter Rethel

Walter Rethel (* 1892 in Wesel, † 1977) was a German aircraft designer.

Career

He initially worked at the condor aircraft plants in Gelsenkirchen and from 1919 at the Fokker Flugzeugwerke in Amsterdam before he was hired by Heinrich Luebbe in the aircraft Arado company trading company as chief designer. In defiance of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty Heinrich Luebbe and Walter Rethel developed with the Ar 65, the first own designs, which had increasingly military character. So Arado able to achieve a major technological advantage. For successful model with a total number of pieces produced by more than 1,000 copies of the constructed Rethel Ar 66 which made ​​its first flight 1932.

1936 amended the National Socialists the name of the company in Arado Flugzeugwerke GmbH. At the same time also left Rethel Arado and switched to Willy Messerschmitt, with whom he developed the fighter Bf 109. In Arado he was replaced by Walter Blume.

Walter Rethel, a descendant of Alfred Rethel (1816-1859), was the father of the painter and designer Alfred Rethel (1922-2003) and grandfather of actress Simone Rethel.

Weblink

  • Http://www.gelsenkirchener-geschichten.de/viewtopic.php?t=5557
  • Http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/cms/beitrag/10507677/2706882/
  • Bf 109 designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Walter Rethel
Design engineer Arado Ar 65 Arado Ar 66
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