:en:Engelbert Zaschka

Engelbert Zaschka came from a family of musicians, his father Wenzel taught zither and played in the Freiburg City Orchestra, his mother Emilie, née Rombach, was a singer; he was the second oldest of four children. He grew up in the Scheffelstraße and in the Bürgerwehrstraße, where his father had the tenement house no. 11 built in art nouveau style in 1910. At the age of 14 he applied for his first patent, founded a "hobby flying club" in Freiburg-Wiehre and allegedly made his first flying attempts at the Freiburg Schlossberg. After attending the "Höhere Bürgerschule" in Freiburg, he went to Altenburg to study engineering. Afterwards he worked as an engineer at Rheinmetall in Düsseldorf and went to Berlin in 1916. There he worked as chief designer at Orion Aktiengesellschaft für Motorfahrzeuge. In the 1930s and 1940s Zaschka was employed by the aircraft manufacturer Henschel. In Berlin, he was registered in 1926 in the Neukölln district of Lichtenrader Straße 59, in 1929 in Selchower Straße 15/16 near Tempelhofer Flugfeld, in 1934 in Flughafenstraße 21 and in 1943 in Weserstraße 34a. After the Second World War, he settled again in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he operated a workshop (vehicle factory. family bicycles or Zaschka vehicle factory) at Türkenlouisstraße 47. Zaschka died on 26 June 1955 in his hometown Freiburg im Breisgau.

Zaschka became one of the first German helicopter pioneers. His machine is a striking representative of the Rotationsflugzeug (Zaschka calls it "rotating airplane").Engelbert Zaschka: Drehflügelflugzeuge. Trag- und Hubschrauber. C.J.E. Volckmann Nachf. E. Wette, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1936, p. 57 Chief Engineer Engelbert Zaschka pursued in 1929 in Berlin, the approach of the folding-Zaschka three-wheeler. This city car concept was aimed to be cost effective and space saving by the vehicle could be folded after use sparingly. In 1934 Engelbert Zaschka completed a large human-powered aircraft. He was an inventor who held numerous international patents as it related to the helicopter.

Image:ZASCHKA Rotationsflugzeug (Trag und Hubschrauber).jpg

In 1927[http://siris-thesauri.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11P8B0B391935.82&profile=planes&uri=link=3100019~!26176~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!sithesauri&term=Zaschka&index= Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: Zaschka Helicopter (1927)] Engelbert Zaschka of Berlin built a helicopter, equipped with two rotors, in which a gyroscope was used to increase stability and serves as an energy accumulator for a gliding flight to make a landing. Gliding in this case means a straight descent. He wanted to develop an efficient propeller drive.Engelbert Zaschka: Drehflügelflugzeuge. Trag- und Hubschrauber. C.J.E. Volckmann Nachf. E. Wette, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1936, p. 47 A swivelling propeller at the rear provided propulsion and rudder control. The machine was a combination of an autogyro and a helicopter. The principal advantage of the machine, Zaschka says, is in its ability to remain motionless in the air for any length of time and to descend in a vertical line, so that a landing may be accomplished on the flat roof of a large house. In appearance, the helicopter does not differ much from the ordinary monoplane, but the carrying wings revolve around the body.

File:Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft (1934).jpg

In 1934[http://siris-thesauri.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11P8B0B391935.82&profile=planes&uri=link=3100019~!26176~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!sithesauri&term=Zaschka&index= Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft (1934)] Engelbert Zaschka completed a large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft. Zaschka constructed the large human-powered tractor monoplane with a narrow wing spanning about 66 feet (20 metres). On 11 July 1934 he flew his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport without assisted take off.[http://siris-thesauri.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11P8B0B391935.82&profile=planes&uri=link=3100019~!26176~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!sithesauri&term=Zaschka&index= Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft (1934)]Lange, Bruno (1970). Das Buch der deutschen Luftfahrttechnik. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, p. 361.

From 1921 till 1925 the design department of Orionette AG für Motorfahrzeuge in Berlin (Berlin SO 26, Oranienstr. 6),Otto Meibes: Die Entwicklung der deutschen Automobilindustrie. Halle 1926, p. 166 headed by Engelbert Zaschka, also produced some interesting unorthodox designs.[http://members.chello.nl/~wgj.jansen/text/orionette.html "Orionette" - Unfortunately the very desmodromic lay-out of this interesting two-stroke engine still remains secret. Source: Motorrad Heft 10/1971 and Tragatsch, E. : The Ill. Encyclopedia of motorcycles.] Orionette is a historic German motorcycle brand.

Image:Zaschka Threewheeler (1929).jpg

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10106, Engelbert Zaschka mit Modell des Kreisel-Flugzeugs.jpg

The space and parking problems of the metropolitan areas were recognized in the 1920s. In 1929 Engelbert Zaschka invented a three-wheeled car in Berlin.OLDTIMER MARKT (Oldtimer-Magazin), Heft 7/93, Artikel von Claudia Franke-Brandau: Parken im Wohnzimmer: Der zerlegbare Kleinwagen des Berliner Erfinders Engelbert Zaschka von 1929, page 206 Zaschka's car was a folding three-wheeler, designed so that it could be taken apart within 20 minutes. The car could be "knocked down" into three main sections. It was capable of a speed of 25 to 30 miles an hour."Come-Apart Auto Invented", The Massena Observer, New York, March 12, 1931, p. 3 Aspects of Zaschka's car were important to U.S. inventor and architect Richard Buckminster Fuller in the development of his Dymaxion car in 1933.synchronofile.com: [http://synchronofile.com/synergetics-stew-january-2009/ Dymaxion - Synergetics Stew January 2009]

{{quotation|His [Engelbert Zaschka’s] plane, the first helicopter, which ever worked so successfully in miniature, not only rises and descends vertically, but is able to remain stationary at any height. German airplane experts assert that such a flight as that of Captain [Charles] Lindbergh's from New York to Paris would not even be a feat for Zaschka's plane when it was perfected. […] Herr Zaschka is fully aware that the perfection of his invention will be the greatest forward step in aviation since the Wright brothers made their historical hop. As he pointed out, the danger of flying would immediately be decreased by at least 80 percent, since four fifths of the accidents in flying occur either in the takeoff or in landing. […] A motor giving thirty to forty horsepower is installed in Zaschka's present experimental machine. It is so delicately adjusted that he has been able to keep the plane at a height of several feet above the ground, with no movement either up or down.|German Plane Promises New Stunts in Air, The Bee. Danville, Virginia, USA, June 25, 1927, p. 16}}

As a composer, Engelbert Zaschka created popular music, including Slavoma - Der neuste Tanz (1925), which was recorded at least twice: by the orchestra Bernard Etté and the saxophone orchestra Dobbri under the direction of Otto Dobrindt. Furthermore, he wrote and composed the hit Wer hat denn bloß den Hering am Schlips mir festgemacht (literally, "Who just fastened the herring to my tie?" (1928).

• {{Patent|DE|573961|„Hubschraubenflugzeug“ issue date June 19, 1926}}
• {{Patent|GB|272962|„Improvements in or relating to Helicopter Flying Machines“ issue date June 20, 1927}}
• {{Patent|US|1779524|„Helicopter“ issue date June 29, 1927}}
• {{Patent|DE|512513|„Triebwerk fuer Maschinen mit hin und her gehenden Kolben, deren Pleuelstangen durch auf der Triebwelle sitzende Exzenterscheiben betaetigt werden“ issue date November 12, 1927}}
• {{Patent|US|1944052|„Portable power plant.“ issue date April 21, 1930}}
• {{Patent|FR|1019111|„Bicyclette.“ issue date May 26, 1950}}

• Zaschka, Engelbert. Drehflügelflugzeuge. Trag- und Hubschrauber. Berlin-Charlottenburg: C.J.E. Volckmann Nachf. E. Wette. 1936. ASIN B001PE5XZ2.

One of the first publications about helicopters. It is written in 1936 for airplane designers, as well as supporters of the rotary-wing aircraft construction.

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09261, Engelbert Zaschka mit Rotationsflugzeug.jpg|{{center|Engelbert Zaschka and his Rotary Wing system, 1927}}

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10105, Berlin-Tempelhof, Modell eines Kreisel-Flugzeuges.jpg|{{center|Zaschka helicopter, 1928}}

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10106, Engelbert Zaschka mit Modell des Kreisel-Flugzeugs.jpg|{{center|Engelbert Zaschka and helicopter, 1928}}

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12440, Rotationsflugzeug beim Senkrechtstart.jpg|{{center|Zaschka Rotary Wing system, 1927}}

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13806, Rotationsflugzeug (cropped).jpg|{{center|Zaschka Rotary Wing system, 1927}}

Image:ZASCHKA Human-Powered Aircraft 1934.jpg|{{center|Zaschka Human-Powered Aircraft and inventor, Berlin 1934}}

Image:Zaschka - Drehflügelflugzeuge. Trag- und Hubschrauber. 1936.jpg|{{center|Drehflügelflugzeuge. Trag- und Hubschrauber. C.J.E. Volckmann Nachf. E. Wette, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1936}}

• Fay, John Foster. The Helicopter: History, Piloting and How It Flies. David & Charles PLC. 1976.
• Reay, David Anthony. The history of man-powered flight. Oxford/New York: Pergamon Press. 1977.
• Nowarra, Heinz J. German Helicopters 1928-1945. Schiffer Publishing. 1991.
• Besser, Rolf. Technik und Geschichte der Hubschrauber: Von Leonardo da Vinci bis zur Gegenwart. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. 1996.
• Grosser, Morton. Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-powered Flight. Zenith Press. 2004.

Große Ideen – kleine Flops: Geistesblitze von A bis Z. Documentary, Germany, 2016, 90 minutes, authors: Andreas Kölmel and Jürgen Vogt; Production: SWR Fernsehen, German premiere: May 16, 2016; [https://www.swr.de/geschichte/erfindungen-aus-dem-suedwesten/-/id=100754/did=17267788/nid=100754/1gr0hwo/index.html Information about the documentary].

• List of rotorcraft
• Human-powered aircraft
• Three-wheeled car

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• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: [http://siris-thesauri.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11P8B0B391935.82&profile=planes&uri=link=3100019~!26176~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!sithesauri&term=Zaschka&index= Zaschka]

Articles

• [https://www.nytimes.com/1927/06/04/archives/says-his-helicopter-can-halt-in-flight-midair-transfer-of.html “Says His Helicopter Can Halt in Flight; Midair Transfer of Passengers Predicted“], The New York Times, June 4, 1927.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525052012/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/119677076.html?dids=119677076:119677076&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JUN+06,+1927&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=AIR+FLIVVERS.&pqatl=google Air Flivvers], The Washington Post, June 6, 1927.
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3965501 Aeroplane that rises vertically], The Argus (Australia), October 27, 1928.
• {{cite web|title=Tüftler Zaschka: ein Freiburger, der alles kleinkriegte|periodical=Badische Zeitung|url=http://www.badische-zeitung.de/freiburg/tueftler-zaschka-ein-freiburger-der-alles-kleinkriegte--122076565.html|access-date=2017-02-15|last=Nicola Schwannauer|date=2016-05-15|language=de}}

Pictures

• [http://www.bdp.it/immagini/immag/olymila/mil312.jpg The Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft and Engelbert Zaschka (Berlin, 1934)]

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Category:1895 births

Category:1955 deaths

Category:Engineers from Freiburg im Breisgau

Category:German aerospace engineers

Category:20th-century German inventors

Category:Cyclecars

Category:Businesspeople from Berlin