100 years of powered flight in Germany - Hans Grade

Celebrate with us!
Hans Grade, one of aviation´s great pioneers, influenced aviation in Germany immensely five years after Wright´s first flight.

His tri-plane flight on October 28th, 1908 in Magdeburg is considered to be the birth of powered flight in Germany. As a qualified engineer this bright man quickly realized that a tri-plane was not the best design, so in 1909 he build his first monoplane which he considered to be the better machine. He was given a pilot´s license in the same year. Because his application was late, the was granted license No 2, with the result that
history books still tell us that Alfred Euler was
Germany´s first pilot.

Grade was late because he tried to improve his financial situation by participationin a flying contest with prize money of 40.000 Reichsmark. It had been donated by the German industrialist Dr K Lanz. Grade won, founded a flying school and mass-produced his "Libelle" (dragonfly) in a small engineering works. That´s when aviation history in Germany began.