August von Parseval
August von Parseval ( born February 5, 1861 in Frankenthal (Pfalz ), † February 22, 1942 in Berlin) was a German designer of airships and namesake of Parseval airships. In historical documents, there is also the spelling Parzeval or Parceval.
Life
Parseval was born as the first son of the Royal Bavarian Government Council Joseph von Parseval (1825-1887) and his wife Marie Amélie of damage ( 1840-1918 ). His grandfather was the Bavarian Major General Ferdinand von Parseval (1791-1854); the Bavarian generals Maximilian von Parseval (1823-1902), Otto von Parseval (1827-1901) and Ferdinand Jakob von Parseval (1829-1919) were his uncle.
He attended from 1873 to 1878 the Royal Bavarian Corps of Munich, where he graduated with the cadet exam. In 1878 he graduated from high school at Wilhelmsgymnasium Munich. He then moved to the 3rd Infantry Regiment Prince Carl of Bavaria. Self-taught, he worked on problems of aeronautics. In the garrison town of Augsburg, he came in contact with August Riedinger and learned also his later partner Hans Bartsch know of Sigsfeld, with whom he developed a tethered kite balloon. This was used as an observation balloon in the military, became widespread and is therefore regarded as very successful.
In free balloon club Augsburg, he was, from 1901, founding member and first Chairman.
In 1901, Parseval and Sigsfeld began construction of a dirigible. After the sudden death Sigsfelds in a free balloon landing in 1902, the work was interrupted until 1905.
Parseval 1908 was a founder of the aircraft company LFG. This built the Parsevall airships PL -3 PL- 1908 to 26 in 1915 in their Shipyard in Bitterfeld.
Due to the developments in engine then was also a corresponding drive unit is available. By the end of World War I were still 22, partly Impact, partly keel airships built by the Parseval type. Late twenties and early thirties four more keel airships were built according to the Parseval Naatz principle.
From Parseval also the development of the aircraft turned to. A memorandum with the design of a flying machine in 1908 he laid before the engine Airship Research Association ( MStG ). Mainly for security reasons he wanted the flight tests for the time being to perform on a large body of water, which is why he expounded the machine as a seaplane. After the MStG pledged the support of the project, and also the town Plau participated by providing a free site, Parseval built a " flyer Hall " at Plau in the fall of 1909. There, the machine was assembled.
The first flight tests on April 14, 1910 - led by chief engineer Ernst Bloch man and with graduate engineer Wilhelm Hoff as the second pilot - gave unsatisfactory results. Even after extensive renovations, the machine was not able to lift off the water. Therefore let Parseval a starting track in the lake to build into it to, similar to the first flight of the Wright brothers to leave accelerate the flying machine on a trolley to the take-off velocity. The first attempt on October 7, 1910 was a success and is today - despite starting from the country - acknowledged as the first seaplane in Germany. At a later flight a flight altitude of 75 meters and a flight distance of about 3-4 kilometers was reached. Early 1911 presented by Parseval 's attempts a.
Parseval devoted himself more of the theoretical teaching at the newly established chair of aviation engineering at the Technical University ( Berlin ) Charlottenburg.
The rides each " Parseval " excited as the first great voyages of the airships, high sensation. In Kiel graduated in 2002 a pub, which was " to Parseval " named in the first visit one of these airships in 1912. The square in front of the Albert -Einstein -Gymnasium in his native city of Frankenthal named Parsevalplatz. In 2000, the vocational training center Bitterfeld- Wolfen given the honorary name " August von Parseval " was awarded. He recalled that, besides the construction of Parseval airships in location close to the vocational training center also necessary for the buoyancy of airships gas demand for hydrogen has been covered to a large extent of the electrochemical plants in Bitterfeld.
August von Parseval was buried in the cemetery Wilmersdorf.