Wilhelm Kress
Wilhelm Kress ( Wilhelm Kress ) ( born July 29, 1836 in Saint Petersburg, † February 24, 1913 in Vienna ) was an Austrian aviation pioneer and designer. He built 1901 engine aircraft at Wienerwaldsee west of Vienna, but the seaplane capsized in experimental runs, without ever having lifted.
Life
Kress, a German parents in the former Russian capital of St. Petersburg, was trained as a piano maker and moved in 1873 to Vienna, where he attended lectures at the Technical University and in 1877 the first free-floating hang glider model brought to fly. It was driven by twisted rubber strings after Kress had previously experimented with clock or watch springs and other things ( and in 1864 his first propellers built ), but everything turned out to be too heavy. Until then, the rule was that man by anything " heavier than air " could be flying. Kress showed the model, among others, the physics professor and president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences Josef Stefan in Vienna and lodged there on his advice to back up its priority rights a description. Kress was also promoted by the famous physicist Ludwig Boltzmann in Vienna, who used the model of Kress on his lectures (among other things About Luftschiffahrt 1894 meeting of natural scientists in Vienna). Boltzmann gave him financial support for the construction of a larger propeller model with electric motor 1895.
Kress also wrote a book aviation and influenced the experiments, for example, by Hiram Stevens Maxim in England and Otto Lilienthal in Germany. In 1900 he invented the joystick for combined control.
1898 to 1901, he constructed the Kress'schen hang glider, a motorized three-decker with two counter-rotating propellers. He opted for a seaplane, since he found no suitable place to land for starting attempts, hoping that the water would limit the impact of any accidents. Kress was expecting a take-off weight of 600 kg with an engine power of at least 30 hp. Because let not find suitable motor in Austria, Kress ordered an airship engine at Daimler -Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart, but which later finally provided one motor instead of 200 kg weighing 380 kg and takes 35 hp only about 30 bhp. Due to the excess weight of the engine also had more reinforcements on the airplane mount, which came finally to a take-off weight of 850 kg Kress. It was quite clear to Kress, that he would never achieve the necessary speed to take off in such a disproportion between weight and performance. However, he wanted to use the aircraft at least for test drives on the lake. However, the floats were very low in the water, since they were not designed for this heavy weight. Due to the small size of the lake Kress had to drive a sharp turn after each acceleration test in order not to collide with the dam. On October 3, 1901 touched after the fourth test driving a supporting surface during such a sharp turn of the water surface and the aircraft capsized and sank. Wilhelm Kress was unhurt rescued from the water. The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered after three days, which after all, the irreplaceable expensive engine for Kress was saved.
In the summer of 1902, a new hang glider was completed, but due to financial difficulties concerning the covering of the wings and the overpass on Lake Neusiedl had to be stopped the project. The flying machine was taken to Vienna Arsenal on 10 October 1904.
1913 on the northern shore of the Vienna forest lake in honor of a monument erected to him (sculptor Rudolf Freiherr von Weigl ) and Untertullnerbach in whose municipal area of the lake is partially took the Kress'sche air screw on the new coat of arms. There the Wilhelm Kress Kress promenade and the street are named after him. In Vienna Simmering ( 11th district ), the Wilhelm Kress Square and Wilhelm Kress - way named after him. Further, in Linz, named after him in Bindermichl the Kressweg.
His grave is located in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 0, number 1, number 65).
Writings
- Wilhelm Kress: Aërovéloce. Steerable flying machine. Self- Verlag, Wien 1880.
- Wilhelm Kress: aviation. As the bird flies and how man will fly. Spielhagen & Schurich, Vienna 1905.