One man, one partnership
A plane can't run without an engine, but an engine is useless by itself. This is where Mr Lusser came in. Fritz Gosslau was adept in designing both aircraft and engine, but one mind was not enough. Both these men had worked on pulse jet's before, and at the same company; both at Argus. When Gosslau was asked to work on the V1 at Fieseler, he jumped straight on board. But as rocket science goes, he couldn't get it quite right. So Fieseler brought in Lusser to help refine the design, and the aircraft, or "flying bomb", was created.
Before the war
In 1923 Gosslau completed his engineering studies by gaining
a diploma from the Technical University of Berlin. In 1926, he obtained his PhD
on the topic- calculated and experimental studies on heat control and
performance improvement in air-cooled aircraft engine cylinders.
1930s, Gosslau worked on aircraft engines at Siemens. When the company stopped production of aircraft engines, he moved to Argus. Gosslau was part of the team making the Argus 410 and 411 engines. In early 1937, Gosslau developed a proposal for a remote, unmanned missile for special military use. This remote controlled target aircraft completed its maiden flight on 14 July 1939. On 9 November 1939, he proposed the development of a motorized wing-mounted missile providing a range of several hundred kilometers, and through radio-navigation, a high accuracy. For this missile, Gosslau used a pulse jet engine. By the start of production, he had developed this into a highly reliable unit. |
Lusser's first jobs were with the Klemm and Heinkel companies, before joining the newly-relaunched Messerschmitt in 1933. There, he assisted Willy Messerschmitt with his design for a touring aircraft, the Messerschmitt M37. This was later put into production as the Messerschmitt Bf 108, and formed the basis for the company's best known product, the Bf 109 fighter aircraft. By 1934, Lusser was head of Messerschmitt's design bureau and in charge of the Bf 110 heavy fighter project.
Lusser stayed with the company until 1938, when he returned to Heinkel. There, he led the design of two highly sophisticated aircraft that would never reach their full potential - the He 280 and the He 219. The He 280 was the first jet fighter to leave the drawing board, but which the Reich Aviation Ministry passed over in favour of the Messerschmitt Me 262. The He 219 was an advanced night-fighter design that was rejected by the RLM in August 1941 as being too complex to order into production because of its many innovations. Ernst Heinkel immediately dismissed Lusser and resubmitted a simplified design that eventually saw limited production. |
during the war
From 1942, Gosslau participated in the development team of the Fiesler Fi 103, also called V1 – an unmanned, explosive payload missile. Towards the end of World War II, Gosslau became involved with its construction as a suicide weapon, and his name is connected with the establishment of the Leonidas Squadron (suicide squadron)
After the war, Gosslau joined Durkopp, the motorcycle manufacturer, where he was chief designer from 1948. In 1954, he moved to the Heinkel (aircraft manufacturer) and took over the development of new engines. In 1958, after the engine development branches of Heinkel and Messerschmitt were acquired by Junkers (aircraft and engine manufacturer), Gosslau became a director of Junkers until 1963, when they were converted to a stock company, a technical board of the Munich-based company. |
From Heinkel, Lusser went to Fieseler, and there became involved with the company's efforts to produce a pilot-less aircraft, initially designated the Fi 103. This was a collaborative effort between the company and engine manufacturer Argus, who were developing a pulsejet. Lusser worked with Argus engineer Fritz Gosslau to refine the design. The project was an initiative of the two companies, begun by Argus as early as 1934, and received little official interest until Erhard Milch recognized its potential in 1942 and assigned it high priority. Nazi propaganda would soon dub this flying bomb the V1, (Vergeltungswaffe - "revenge weapon").
It was a design competing with Wernher von Braun' s "V2" vertical takeoff rocket. Despite initial demonstrations before Luftwaffe made the V2 look more reliable, it was decided both designs should proceed into production. Lusser and von Braun were rivals, and even later their relationship was never frictionless. Near Wolfsburg, Lusser found the main design flaw of his rocket, which turned out to be an underdimensioned main wing spar, as the ramp up of production began. From there on, the design worked. |