Friedrich Harth

Background

Friedrich Harth was the son of a head forester and attended elementary school in Bamberg, high school in Landshut, and graduated from high school in Munich. After studying architecture, he became interested in the work of Otto Lilienthal and began building gliders. In 1909, while working as a government builder, he started constructing gliders. His first flight attempt in 1910 on the Ludwiger Kulm (also known as Ludwigskulm) near Bamberg ended in a crash on frozen ground, but he continued improving his designs, retaining rotary wing control as an essential feature.

During the First World War, Harth was drafted, interrupting his flight attempts. While he was away, his helper Willy Messerschmitt built the S5 glider according to Harth's plans.

On home leave, Harth flew the S5 to an altitude of 20 meters and traveled 300 meters from the Heidelstein starting point. In 1916, he was transferred to Schleißheim, where he taught aircraft construction. After the war, he built the S7 glider while working at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke.

On September 13, 1921, Harth set a record glider flight of 21 minutes and 27 seconds from the Heidelstein in the Rhön Mountains with the Harth-Messerschmitt S8 monoplane. The exact details of the flight's ending are disputed; some accounts mention a crash that left him severely injured, but the circumstances are not universally accepted. By 1924, impoverished after losing his job, he lived on welfare.