Hirth, Wolf (1900-1959)

Hirth, Wolf

ENGINEER, AVIATION PIONEER (GERMANY)

BORN 28 Feb 1900, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg - DIED 25 Jul 1959, Dettigen unter Teck, Baden-Württemberg
BIRTH NAME Hirth, Kurt Erhard Wolfram
CAUSE OF DEATH crash with aerobatic glyder after heart attack
GRAVE LOCATION Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg: Waldfriedhof (Abteilung 09 N)

Wolf Hirth was a gilding pioneer and a sailplane designer. He was the son of the eigineer Albert Hirth (1858-1935) and the younger brother of Hellmuth Hirth (1886-1938) who founded the aircraft engine manufacturing company Hirth-Motoren GmbH. Wolf took up gliding on an early age and obtained his pilot's license in 1920. In 1924 he had a motor cycle accident that cost him a leg and he used a wooden prothesis afterwards. In 1928 he graduated from Stuttgart University in engineering and he started working as an aircraft constructor. He promoted gilding all over the world and gave a demonstration in New York City om 10 March 1931. After a crash in Hungary he was in hospital for four months.

In 1934 he travelled to South-America with Professor Walter Georgii from Darmstadt with Hanna Reitsch and others to study thermal conditions. In Argentina he performed seventy-six successive loops. He helped Martin Schemmp (1905-1984) to start his company in Göppingen in 1935 and became a partner in 1938 when the company moved to Kirchheim-Teck. The company produced assembly parts for the Messerschmitt Me 323 and other planes. After the war it made furniture and in 1951 it restarted the production of gliders.

Wolf died of a heart attack when he was flying his acrobatic flyer in 1959 and died in the crash that followed. In 1963 his "Handbuch des Segelfliegens" was published.

Family
• Father: Hirth, Albert
• Brother: Hirth, Hellmuth

Related persons
• travelled with Reitsch, Hanna

Images
The grave of Albert Hirth, Hellmuth Hirth and Wolf Hirth at the Waldfriedhof, Stuttgart. Picture by Androom (31 Jan 2007)	The grave of Albert Hirth, Hellmuth Hirth and Wolf Hirth at the Waldfriedhof, Stuttgart. Picture by Androom (31 Jan 2007)