The development work went ahead at the highest tempo. Most of the people involved in the design work worked 90 to 100 hours a week and even slept sometimes in their offices. Air-attack alarms in Vienna and transportation difficulties frequently disrupted...
On 19 September 1944 the Main Aircraft Development Committee formally decided to pick Heinkel’s design. On the 21st, Knemeyer, Lucht and Major-General Diesing briefed Göring about the new aircraft. The three experts’ presentation included a crude animation film prepared overnight by...
Most of the German aircraft produced during the late war period covered in this research were designed long before that. Even the jet aircraft had their roots in the early 1940s. In this regard the He 162 jet fighter—also widely known...
So far we have dealt with various technical, organizational and political aspects of the German aviation industry and the “Production Miracle.” At the same time millions experienced the war from below while working in this prosperous industry. Whereas decisionmaking and production...
Heinkel definitely profited as an aviation business from the early use of slave labor and from the subsequent increased productivity of the Oranienburg complex. Slave labor also solved several problems associated with the German workforce. While in early 1942 the firm...
The most obvious solution to the manpower shortage was to recruit non–German workers. Although Germany’s general manpower crisis came to a head after Stalingrad, the aviation industry started looking for alternative workforce long before the 6th Army was lost. The manpower...
Although in 1939 the German aviation industry possessed large unused production capacity in terms of production machinery and floor space, it suffered from an acute manpower shortage. By definition, the highly modern aviation industry relied on quite narrow and professional manpower...
Technological, industrial and organizational aspects of the German aviation industry has stood so far at the focal point of this research, but now it is time to turn to some social issues. One of the most striking features of late-war German...
While preparing these aircraft for production, German designers started working on the next generation of military aircraft. Among them were—again—numerous variants of the Me 262 and the Ar 234, but also a host of futuristic designs. One of the most popular...
“Big Week” turned out to be the most traumatic event experienced by the German aviation industry in its history. The concentrated attacks caused great alarm in the German leadership and made it turn its full attention to the problems of aircraft...
