Wolfgang Späte Major Wolfgang Späte ( 1911 - 1997 ) was a German World War II Luftwaffe flying ace . He was also a recipient of the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves ( ) . The Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership - for the fighter pilots , it was a quantifiable measure of skill and combat success . He is attributed by some , for an early , 1938 version of the speed to fly theory , usually attributed to Paul MacCready . Already a talented glider pilot before the war , he went on to become of the Luftwaffe ' s foremost test pilots . Career . He was born on 8 September 1911 in Podersam . Before World War II Späte was a well - known and award - winning glider pilot and a student of the TH Darmstadt . In 1939 he was a " Leutnant " in the army , and then for the first year of the war flew as a reconnaissance pilot . However , by the start of 1941 , as an " Oberleutnant " , he had converted onto fighters and was serving with 5 . / JG 54 - the 5th " Staffel " ( squadron ) of Jagdgeschwader 54 ( 54th Fighter Wing ) . Sent along with JG 54 to cover the German invasion of the Balkans and Greece , he scored his first victory ( a Yugoslav Bristol Blenheim , near Pecs in Hungary ) on 7 April 1941 . Returning to the eastern frontier for Operation Barbarossa , he shot down two SB - 2 bombers on 23 June , the second day of the invasion . Victories came regularly , and he was awarded the Ehrenpokal , for 25 victories , on 9 August . Soon after , on 10 September , he was promoted to " Staffelkapitän " of 5 . / JG 54 . Then on 5 October , he became the 10th member of JG 54 to be awarded the " Ritterkreuz " ( Knight ' s Cross ) , after reaching 45 victories . His unit withdrew to the Reich at the end of the year for rest and refit , and Späte was promoted to " Hauptmann " on 1 January 1942 . Success continued upon returning to the north of the Eastern Front as the Soviets desperately tried to raise the siege of Leningrad . This culminated with the award of the Oakleaves to the Knight ' s Cross on 23 April 1942 when he had 72 victories . However , with the award , he was ordered back to the Reich to set up a top - secret unit : " Erprobungskommando 16 " , " EKdo 16 " - to test - fly the revolutionary new rocket - fighter , the Messerschmitt Me 163 " Komet " . He took his first flight in the Me 163 on 8 May 1942 . Over the next year testing continued and slowly specially chosen pilots joined EKdo 16 . Interestingly , side by side with the rocket - fighter project , was the test programme of the Me 262 jet - fighter ( under EKdo 262 ) . Späte first flew the Me 262 on 17 April 1943 , and is one of a select few pilots to have flown both ground - breaking aircraft . After another year , the Me 163 was deemed combat - ready , and the testing program was wound down . Späte was promoted to " Major " and sent back to command a combat unit : IV . / JG 54 , currently based in Romania . Before he left for his new posting though , on 14 May 1944 he flew the first combat sortie for the Me 163 . According to some sources , his Me 163 PK + OL was painted red , either in the factory or by ground crew , resembling Manfred von Richthofen ' s Fokker Dr . I . Although he flew the mission ( without success , twice unable to intercept the evemy when the rocket engine failed ) , Späte was not amused after seeing the plane and ordered it to be re - painted . His new unit was quickly recalled to the Reich in June to cover the transfer of all the squadrons sent west following the D - day landings . There it was converted onto the Fw 190A - 8 and then sent to Poland against the great Russian summer offensive . But against vastly greater numbers of enemy aircraft the unit was butchered , losing nearly half its pilots killed or wounded - Späte himself was injured and forced to bail out of his aircraft . The unit was pulled back again to the Reich for refit and rebuild . On 17 September , the Allied forces staged their airborne operation at Arnhem . Again , IV . / JG 54 was thrown into the fray , but for the second time in less than 3 months , against vastly superior opposition , it was destroyed in less than a fortnight . Whether due to problems getting the Me 163 operational , or his unit ' s catastrophic losses , Späte gave up his command of IV . / JG 54 . In his 4 - month absence from the Me 163 programme , the first combat unit ( I . / JG 400 ) had been set up and he joined that unit to come back up to speed on the interceptor ' s progress ( some sources say as the unit ' s commander , although Hptm Robert Olejnik ( pilot ) is also given as the unit commander at this time ) . However , this was interrupted when he was hospitalised in mid - October due to illness for a month . Finally in late December , with the Me 163 squadrons expanded to three full " Gruppen " , JG 400 got its " Stab " ( Headquarters ) flight , becoming the first operational combat unit with rocket aircraft , with Wolfgang Späte as its first ( and only ) " Kommodore " . After all the testing however , combat success was very limited , with only a handful of victories ever recorded for JG 400 . Despite the flood of American bomber raids , it was just too limited as a point - defence interceptor and quite ineffective . With the war situation getting more desperate , it was an unaffordable luxury of personnel and resources and the unit was disbanded in early March and its pilots and crew dispersed to other units . Späte himself was sent for full training on the Messerschmitt Me 262 , and on 5 April took over command of I . / JG 7 , a combat unit flying that equally new , but far more successful jet - fighter . He continued to command this unit for the final month of the war and managed to score 5 victories flying the Me 262 , thus becoming a jet - ace as well . Serving with JG 54 on the Eastern front , and Jagdgeschwader 400 and Jagdgeschwader 7 in Western Europe , Wolfgang Späte is credited with the destruction of 99 enemy aircraft shot down in over 350 combat missions . In 1956 he rejoined the military service in the Bundeswehr . Oberstleutnant Späte retired on 30 September 1967 . He died on 30 April 1997 in Edewecht , at the age of 85 .