Ernst Heinkel

Ernst Heinkel was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer, born in 1888 and died in 1958. He studied at the Technical Academy of Stuttgart, became interested in aviation through Zeppelins and built his first aircraft in 1910. After working for LVG, Albatros and Hansa-Brandenburg, he established the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke company at Warnemünde in 1922. Under restrictions on German aircraft building he sought contracts abroad, including seaplane and catapult work for Japan. His firm built the Heinkel He 111 and produced the He 178, the first aircraft to fly solely under turbojet power in 1939, and the He 176, the first rocket aircraft. He was a member of the Nazi Party and was named a defence industry leader, and his company used forced Jewish labor from 1941. In 1943 the company was turned into Ernst Heinkel AG with Heinkel as chairman of the supervisory board.