Friedrich Wilhelm Sander

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Friedrich Sander (left) and Fritz von Opel (right) in front of Opel RAK 1 rocket-powered aircraft. Rebstock, Frankfurt. 30 September 1929

Friedrich Wilhelm Sander (August 25, 1885 in Glatz (Kłodzko) – September 15, 1938) was a German pyrotechnics engineer and manufacturer remembered for his contributions to rocket-powered flight as key protagonist of the Opel RAK program.

In 1923, Sander purchased the company in Bremerhaven, which had been manufacturing black powder charges to power whaling harpoons since the mid nineteenth century. Sander soon expanded the factory's products to include . In 1928, he was approached by Max Valier, on behalf of Fritz von Opel to provide rockets to propel cars and aircraft as a means of popularizing the use of rockets for propulsion and for promoting the Opel company. Their joint projects within Opel RAK, the world's first large-scale rocket program, involved the creation of the world's first rocket car, the Opel RAK 1 and the first rocket plane, the Ente.[1]

From 1930, Sander (with other pyrotechnics factories) began secretly manufacturing rockets for military purposes, at the direction of Walter Dornberger. In 1936 he signed a contract for the sale of some of these weapons to Italy but was denounced as a traitor by the Nazis and imprisoned. During this time, the company was bankrupted, but upon his release later the same year, Sander founded a new company, Comet GmbH, with the assistance of some of his previous suppliers. In 1938, the firm was nationalised and Sander, again imprisoned, was forced to sell his interests in it to the Nazi Party. He died while in custody.[2] He was married to Cäcilie Sander and had three boys: Hans HW (1918-1998), Bruno (1918-1983) and Herbert (1920-?).


Further reading[]

  • Projekt RAK – Das Raketenzeitalter begann in Rüsselsheim, a documentation from Klaus F. Filthaut, München 1999.

External links[]

References[]

  1. ^ https://www.airforcemag.com/article/0904rocket/
  2. ^ Filthaut, Projekt RAK, pp. 197 ff.
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