Opel RAK.1

The Opel - Sander RAK.1 was a rocket plane of the German manufacturer Opel.

History

The German industrialist Fritz von Opel financed the first manned rocket flight on 11 June 1928 on the water mountain with the Lippisch - duck and the pilot Fritz Stamer.

Since the Lippisch Duck burned at the third attempt, he contacted the aircraft manufacturer Julius Hatry to give it the Rak.1, an almost finished glider specifically for rocket launches to buy some. Hatry and Fritz von Opel entered into an agreement which provided that Hatry should finalize and fly the airplane; Opel should then show the RAK.1 public. After this demonstration should then Hatry vorfliegen the aircraft in Germany.

On September 10, 1929 Julius Hatry flew to a rubber cord start with switched- missile about 1.4 km at Kelsterbach.

Fritz von Opel started on September 30, 1929 before a large audience and the cameras on the former Frankfurt Airport, the Rebstock grounds. The successful third start on this day was preceded by two failed attempts, where the propulsion rockets had ignited too late after the catapult launch. On landing, the aircraft was badly damaged and not restored to airworthy condition.

Construction

Julius Hatry built the wing monoplane constructed in timber. The double vertical tail was connected to two arms on the wing with a common horizontal stabilizer. Thus, the tail was positioned far away from the exhaust plume of solid rocket.

The 16 solid rocket came from Friedrich Wilhelm Sander, who made ​​numerous experiments with solid rocket propulsion as with Fritz von Opel at the time.

The Opel plants built the 18 -meter-long catapult rocket sled for the start of the vine.