Hans Amtmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
October 15, 1906
Hans Amtmann | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hans Henry Amtmann October 15, 1906 |
| Died | February 20, 2007 (aged 100) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | State Technical College, Germany |
| Occupations | Architect and aircraft designer |
| Years active | 1934-1984 |
| Employers |
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| Known for | Member of Operation Paperclip |
| Spouse |
Margret Amtmann
(m. 1934–2004) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
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Hans Henry Amtmann (October 15, 1906 – February 20, 2007) was a German aircraft designer. He was best known for his work at Blohm & Voss, where he worked as Head of New Projects under Chief Designer Richard Vogt during the World War II era. After the war, he moved the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, where he worked on a variety of projects.
Hans Amtmann was born in Sande, on the outskirts of Bergedorf, near Hamburg in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in October 1906. He was the second of two brothers. From the age of nine he was educated at the Hansa School. During this time he learned to play the violin, before moving on to study naval architecture at the State Technical College in Hamburg. In his final term he took a course in aeronautics.[1]
German aeroplane designer
After only one month working as a naval architect, Amtmann was offered a position as an aircraft designer at Junkers in Dessau. He worked on the wings of the G 38 and Ju 52 all-metal transports, and on in-flight refuelling, rocket-assisted take-off and preliminary design work. There he also met Hermann Pohlmann, who would go on to design the famous Ju 87 Stuka or dive-bomber before eventually becoming Amtmann's superior in another company.
In 1933, Amtmann moved to Heinkel at Warnemünde on the shores of the Baltic Sea, where he worked on the fuselage of the He 70 transport before becoming involved once again on new project work.
Wanting to return to Hamburg, Amtmann obtained a position as an aircraft designer at the newly established Hamburger Flugzeugbau, under the design leadership of Richard Vogt.[2] He started work there as one of Vogt's first recruits, early in 1934, and was soon appointed Head of Preliminary Design. He would remain there, working on Vogt's great range of unconventional and ingenious ideas, throughout its official renaming as a subsidiary of Blohm & Voss shipbuilders, until it was shut down at the end of World War II in 1945. Due to the workload on Vogt, Amtmann's old colleague Pohlmann would later also join B&V as Deputy Chief Designer, so becoming his immediate superior.
Hans and Margret Amtmann married on 10 October 1934. He had known her since his days as a naval architect. The couple had four children: three boys and a girl.[3] In 1941, he was awarded the War Merit Cross for his outstanding aircraft work.[4]
Amtmann was subsequently appointed project engineer for the proposed Blohm & Voss BV 237 stuka or dive-bomber attack aircraft, which had been personally approved by Hitler, but the order was obstructed by others and the work delayed until the war ended.[5] He also took over and led the design of the P 200 transatlantic passenger flying boat project for Deutsche Luft Hansa, with the intention of building it when the war was over.[6] The BV 40 interceptor glider, flown in prototype form, gave him experience of the prone pilot position, which would help his later career. Immediately after the factory was shut down at the end of hostilities, B&V kept a core design team together in rented rooms at a museum. But money soon ran out and Amtmann took a teaching job.
