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Gottlob Espenlaub was one the great pioneers of the 20th century who worked on early hang-gliders and sailplanes prior to World War II.
ESPENLAUB VOGELSCHRECK FLUGOBJEKT
(1942-1945)
By Rob Arndt
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Gottlob Espenlaub was one the great pioneers of the 20th century who worked on early hang-gliders and sailplanes prior to World War II.
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Together, they worked on one of the world’s first flying wings, the E-2 of 1922 which was the very first of over fifty swept-wing and tailless designs Lippisch would come to produce over the next three decades.
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Plates at each wing tip of the E-2 were drooped to provide directional stability. Though this first co-operative effort was less than impressive, it at least was a starting point from which Lippisch began serious, systematic development of tailless designs while Espenlaub soon got into the aviation technical journals.
Espenlaub then moved on to rocket planes and had constructed by 1927 a rocket glider - the E-15.
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During 1928 he tests the early black powder rockets thoroughly at Düsseldorf before planning the first flight.
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On October 22, 1929
During the late 1920s and 1930s Espenlaub also endeavors to develop a series of ultra-streamliner cars until the war breaks out in 1939.
LUFTFLUGABWEHRDRACHEN
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But as the war rages on Espenlaub is awarded a contract for development of war kites - Luftflugabwehrdrachen that would be deployed over factories and air bases. Espenlaub provides the Luftwaffe with several advanced designs, some of which become manned projects. They become a success and a cheaper alternative to standard barrage balloons, but remain an enigma to the Allies.
Further development ensues with both powered types (Gyroflight kites) with a seat mounting launching rack for some form of solid fuel rocket and strange steerable Rollplans (Rolling Planes) of which the mysterious Flugobjekt appears towards the end of the war.
POWERED DRACHEN (KREISELFLUGDRACHEN)
ROLLPLANS
The first experimental pre-war Rollplans were largely tethered like a normal kite but with added lines for steering in ways that others cannot maneuver. From these early tests Espenlaub attempts to design a remote controlled un-tethered Drache with a control antenna and wingtip internal flight controls of unknown construction. There is some speculation that the fabric to this Flugobjekt (Flight Object) may have been treated chemically to react to other chemicals pumped out of the inner structure creating propulsion heat that was expelled through a complicated wingtip nozzle and internal pressure control system. Additional sensors could have been placed on this loitering war kite and directed to fire volleys of solid fuel rockets at low-flying Allied marauders.
The Flugobjekt has been called a “Vogelschreck” (Scarecrow, but literally Bird Terror!) but that is all that is firmly known about this device.
Under constant Allied bombardment, Espenlaub’s company was moved into a tunnel system called MIESE I in the last year of the war and he was ordered to destroy all of his documents in the spring of 1945. The Espenlaub works had performed extensive repair work on several types of German aircraft, covertly worked with KG-200 on repairing Allied captured aircraft, developed a unique Espenlaub Jadgflugzeug fighter, researched solid fuel rockets, and deployed several types of war kites.
Postwar, Espenlaub went back to designing streamlined cars and eventually back to the kite business.
RETURN OF THE FLUGOBJEKT
But his love of kites never diminished, so in 1969 the Espenlaub Company began to manufacture advertising kites. They proved a great success in The Unknown "Flying Object" Because the wingtips of the dark kite were painted fluorescent red, it was speculated that it was a flying object of the Bundeswehr or an Autobahn patrol helicopter. Finally the riddle was solved, in a harmless fashion: At the other end of the kile was the constructor Gottlob Espenlaub.
A strange flying object, floating above the highway rest stop at the Blombachtalbrücke, caused travelers to puzzle over whom it belonged to and what function it had.
Some passers-by even urged calling the police.
He had rebuilt this kite, that was used to defend against enemy planes, as a hobby project.
This 1969 version was not remote controlled but shows the general appearance of the type that would have become possibly armed aerial “Scarecrows” over Luftwaffe air bases and Reich industrial facilities. Since no report of this object has come forth from Allied sources it most likely was a prototype only. But it is symbolic of the creative designs Espenlaub should be known for. Instead, Espenlaub died of heart disease in 1972 in relative obscurity, even though he had the great privilege to meet astronaut Neil Armstrong personally in 1970.
