page_title: Erich Warsitz
section_title: Heinkel He 111 & He 112
hierarchical_section_title: Erich Warsitz / Biography / Aviation career / Heinkel He 111 & He 112
context_page_description: Erich Warsitz was a German test pilot of the 1930s. He held the rank of Flight-Captain in the Luftwaffe and was selected by the Reich Air Ministry as chief test pilot at Peenemünde West. He is remembered as the first person to fly an aircraft under liquid-fueled rocket power, the Heinkel He 176, on June 20, 1939 and also the first to fly an aircraft under turbojet power, the Heinkel He 178, on August 27 the same year.
context_section_description: Late in 1936 Erich Warsitz was seconded by the RLM to Wernher von Braun and Ernst Heinkel, because he had been recognized as one of the most experienced test-pilots of the time, and because he also had an extraordinary fund of technical knowledge. In 1937, working closely with Wernher von Braun, Erich Warsitz undertook the initial flight testing of the Heinkel He 112 fitted with von Braun's rocket engine. Despite the wheels-up landing and having the fuselage on fire, it proved to official circles that an aircraft could be flown satisfactorily with a back-thrust system through the rear.
  In parallel the RLM had suddenly acquired an interest in so-called rocket boosters fitted for the sake of simplicity below the wings of a heavily loaded bomber to cut down the length of runway needed for take-off  from small aerodromes and airfields. Once in the air the spent booster casings would be dropped by parachute for re-use. The firm of Hellmuth Walter at Kiel handled this development. The first standing trials and tests flights of their boosters were also held at Neuhardenberg using a Heinkel He 111E placed at disposal by Heinkel. 
  Walter had also been commissioned by the RLM to build a rocket engine for the He 112, so there were two different new rocket motor designs at Neuhardenberg: whereas the von Braun's engines were powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen, Walter engines had hydrogen peroxide and calcium permanganate as a catalyst. Von Braun's engine used direct combustion and created fire, the Walter devices hot vapours from a chemical reaction, but both created thrust and provided high speed. The subsequent flights with the He 112 used the Walter-rocket instead of von Braun's; it was more reliable, simpler to operate and the dangers to pilot and machine were less. All those test flights at Neuhardenberg were made by Erich Warsitz.
caption: A He 111E in Luftwaffe service, 1940, without rocket boosters
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