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In 1937 the occult Vril Gesellschaft (Society) began its continued disc development program with official Nazi Party backing under Professor W.O. Schumann of the Technical University of Munich who worked on the JFM (Jenseitsflugmachine) from 1922-1924.
Professor Schumann had invented the SM-Levitator from the JFM research and now the time had come to put the device to work in a series of "Round Aircraft"- the Rundflugzeug series.
The series began with the RFZ-1 which was constructed after the Vril Gesellschaft had purchased the fallow land surrounding the Arado Brandenburg aircraft plant for future flight testing. The RFZ-1 took to the air in 1937 on its first and only flight at Arado Brandenburg. The record of this historic flight did not end in success.
Arado came up with a crude rail launcher system for the disc and provided the disc craft with the instrument controls and tail unit from an Ar-196 floatplane. But instead of floats the RFZ-1 had large skids installed on the underbelly for the anticipated rough landing on the Arado grounds.
After a brief launch, the RFZ-1 attained a height of approximately 60 meters before trouble set in. The craft began to lose flight control, tumbling in midair for some time as pilot Lothar Waiz attempted to regain control. The Ar-196 controls and affixed tail unit, however, proved practically useless for this type of craft. Facing an emergency situation, the pilot attempted to bring the craft as close to the ground as possible before bailing out and running away from the wildly gyrating machine which tilted, tore into the ground and was destroyed completely.
Not to be deterred, Vril rapidly constructed both the RFZ-2 and 3 by the end of 1937. The new Schumann SM-Levitator was used along with a new "magnetic field impulser" to control the new RFZ-2 which was just 5 meters in diameter. The small craft had an armored turret on top armed with two light 7.92mm MG-34 for defense. It was supported by three tall lander legs with forked tips for uneven landing on rough soil. It was put to use in the air war against England in 1940-41 performing vital reconnaissance over areas that the Me Bf 109 could not hope to reach. Due to the craft's small size and experimental impulse controls the RFZ-2 could only make turns of 90, 45, and 22.5 degrees making it unsuitable as a fighter aircraft.
HK Atlantis German surface raider
In 1941, however, the RFZ-2 met the surface raider Atlantis in the South Atlantic. The RFZ-2 served as a long-range spotter for the raider which would later bring mining equipment and supplies to Neu Schwabenland prior to its sinking in December 1941.
This is the last known use of the RFZ-2 which due to its cramped interior which tended to heat up badly became known as the "Fliegende Heisswasserflasche" (Flying Hot Water Bottle)!
The RFZ-3 was also constructed in 1937 followed by the larger RFZ-4 in 1938. Both were used for continued flight testing which involved improving both the flight characteristics of the disc aircraft as well as the SM-Levitator units and Mag-Field Impulsers.
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