u/VonTempest

Historical, temporary coat of arms used by the German Oberamt (district) of Böblingen from 1927 to 1947. The central figure features a silver/white Daimler L 20 (later known as the Klemm-Daimler L 20) light aircraft flying through a blue field. The gold band at the top contains a three-pronged black stag's antler (Hirschstange), representing the historic region of Württemberg. The design was created by the Stuttgart painter Kurt Gläsche and approved on 23 November 1927. It honours the Stuttgart-Böblingen state airport and the Hanns Klemm light aircraft factory. Klemm's factory was a massive driver of the local economy and became the largest employer in the area by the late 1930s. Because heraldic laws traditionally discourage modern technical machinery, this unique, aviation-focused coat of arms was replaced in 1947

The DFS Sperber (Sparrow Hawk) Junior was a high-performance glider custom-built for the petite stature of the greatest aviatrix in history, Flugkapitän Hanna Reitsch, at the 17th Rhön Gliding Competition (Rhönwettbewerb), which was the premier soaring championship of the era, August 1936 at the Wasserkuppe mountain in Hesse, Germany. It was flown by Hanna during the 10-day event, where she placed fourth overall.

The competition was intensely contested by Germany's elite soaring pilots. Hanna's 4th-place finish was highly celebrated, as she was the only woman competing in the master-class division and was piloting a newly completed, one-off aircraft variant. Beyond her distance and duration scoring flights over the Rhön mountains, Hanna used the event to visually demonstrate the extreme structural integrity of Hans Jacobs' wing designs.

She performed radical aerobatic routines, pushing the aircraft into multi-turn spins and steep dives. This performance directly solidified her selection as a lead demonstration pilot for the gliding exhibition held just days later at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. While she utilised her custom Sperber Junior at the Rhön mountains just prior, for the official Olympic flight showcases she shifted focus to demonstrating the structural feats of the newly developed DFS Habicht (Hawk).

This was the world's first fully aerobatic specialised sailplane. The primary purpose of her performance was to secure gliding's official acceptance into future Olympic line-ups. Though it was approved to become an official medal sport for the planned 1940 Tokyo Games, those Olympics were ultimately canceled due to the outbreak of World War II

L-R: Future 135 victory ace and 500+ mission veteran, Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern (Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords) holder, Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 26 Schlageter, Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 26 and Geschwaderkommodore of JG 77, Major Joachim Müncheberg and his dog Seppl across from future 75 victory ace and 452 mission veteran, Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub (Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves) holder, Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 26 Schlageter and Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 26, Major Klaus Mietusch and unnamed friend, possibly Gela, Sicily, possibly February/March 1941. Müncheberg was KIA on 23 March 1943 after his 135th and last claim, a Spitfire from the USAAF's 52nd FG exploded directly in front of him or collided with him after being destroyed. Mietusch was KIA on 17 September 1944 in combat with North American P-51D Mustangs. Müncheberg claimed 33 victories on the Eastern Front and of his 102 victories on the Western Front, 46 were Supermarine Spitfires and 13 US 4-engined bombers. Both men are Oberleutnants at this time

1936 period poster commissioned by the Hamburg-Amerika Linie (HAPAG), acting as the general agency for the Zeppelin airship company, the renowned German graphic artist and painter Ottomar Anton. Text reads "Nach Südamerika in 3 Tagen!" (To South America in 3 Days!). It shows the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, flying its transatlantic passenger route from Friedrichshafen, Germany, through Barcelona and Seville, across the Atlantic Ocean down to Pernambuco (Recife), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina)

L-R: General der Flieger and Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Supreme Commander of the Air Force) Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler and Generalleutnant and Chef der Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL/High Command of the Air Force) Walther Wever stand in front of a Heinkel He 45 while visiting JG 2 Richthofen, Döberitz airfield near Berlin, 28 March 1935. Walter Wever was the champion of the strategic bomber programme but after his death in 1936, only the Heinkel He 177 Greif proceeded

Speicesaal (dining room) of LZ 129 Hindenburg

Good view of Schwarze Männer (Black men/Luftwaffe mechanics) working on the BMW Bramo 323 Fafnir 9-cylinder radial engines on a Dornier Do 24T flying boat, location and date unknown

CANT Z.506 Airone (Heron) Italian three engine floatplane which initially served as a transport and postal aircraft with the Italian airline Ala Littoria. Later used as a reconnaissance aircraft, bomber and air-sea rescue aeroplane during the war with the Regia Aeronautica. First flew 18.8.1935

L-R: Staffelkapitän 11./JG 5 Eismeer, Hauptmann Erich Schreiber, unknown Leutnant, future 1 victory and Gruppenkommandeur IV./JG 5 Hauptmann Hans Kriegel, Staffelkapitän 10./JG 5 Oberleutnant Hans Schneider and unknown, Copenhagen-Værløse airfield in the spring of 1943. Behind is Kriegel's Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/R6 Dita 13. Note the double chevron (<<) staff insignia denoting a Gruppenkommandeur (Group Commander)

Rear view of the Daimler-Benz DB 602 engine on display in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. A water pump on each side of the engine provided cooling water to a bank of cylinders. The DB 602 engine proved to be an outstanding and reliable power plant for LZ 129 Hindenburg. However, its capabilities will forever be overshadowed by the Hindenburg disaster.

Two DB 602 engines still exist and are on display; one is in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and the other is in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, in Le Bourget, France. Although the DB 602 was not used on a wide scale, it did serve as the basis for the Mercedes-Benz 500 series marine engines that powered a variety of Kriegsmarine (German navy) S-Boats (Schnellboot/fast attack boats) during the war

On 11 November 1937 at the Augsburg-Haunstetten airfield, Dr.-Ing. Hermann Wurster set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record for speed when he flew a prototype Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG Bf 109 V13 (D-IPKY) WNr 1050 to an average speed of 610.95 kph/379.63 mph in four passes over a 3 kilometre course. This broke the speed record set two years earlier by Howard Hughes with his Hughes H-1 Special (NR258Y) by 43.83 kph/27.23 mph.

L-R: Unknown, Dipl-Ing Robert Lusser (then-chief of project development at BFW and co-designer of the 109),

Dr-Ing Hermann Wurster wearing goggles, flight helmet and parachute), Dr-Ing Hubert Bauer of BFW, Professor Dr-Ing Willy Messerschmitt and unknown. The two unknowns are possibly Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM/German Air Ministry) representatives.

Lusser and Bauer were instrumental in modifying the standard airframe and fitting the highly boosted, experimental Daimler-Benz DB 601 Re III engine (which briefly pushed output to 1,660 hp). They were on the airfield to oversee engine tuning, fuel mixtures, and mechanical reliability. Robert Lusser moved to Heinkel shortly after BFW took the record which had been set, ironically, by Heinkel two months earlier

The LFG (Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft) Roland G.1 was a large prototype single-engine biplane bomber built in 1915. It had a single engine buried in the fuselage driving pusher configuration propellers mounted on outriggers. It had a wingspan of over 30 metres (98 ft), extremely large for the time. Although it had twin pusher propellers mounted between the wings and an Idflieg G designation (heavy bomber), it had only a single engine, mounted in the fuselage over the centre of gravity and linked to the propellers by gears and shafts. HAZET radiators mounted on the sides of the fuselage between the wings provided cooling to the adjacent engine.

The G.I had unstaggered unequal span wings, its fuselage was flat sided with a rounded nose containing the gunner's position. The pilot's cockpit was immediately behind the gunner but ahead of the wing leading edge. The Maybach Mb.IVa water-cooled six cylinder inline engine was directly behind the pilot driving two propellers placed on outriggers in the inner bays. The undercarriage was conventional, with wheels on a single axle mounted on a pair of V-struts to the fuselage. There was also a tail skid and a pair of smaller wheels mounted under the nose to avoid nose-overs. Only one was made, I'm unsure of its fate. Image from the Ray Wagner Collection

Junkers G-38 Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg (D-2500) on the ground and G-38 (D-AZUR) in flight. Text reads: Junkers' all-metal aircraft

Generalfeldmarschall v. Hindenburg, with its sister aircraft D-AZUR flying above, Berlin, May 1933. Only two G.38s were made, D-2000 crashed in 1936.

Fortunately, there were no casualties but Deutsche Luft Hansa wrote off the aircraft due to the amount of damage it sustained. The D-2500 on the other hand flew with the airline for almost a decade. Once WWII started she was conscripted into military service and became a transport aircraft for the Luftwaffe. She was destroyed by the RAF on the runway in Athens in May 1941

Painted by Austrian/German artist Lois Gaigg

1919 aviation poster advertises the Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG), a prominent German aircraft manufacturer active during WWI and the post-war era. Artwork by Fritz Neumann-Fred, showcasing an expressive, low-angle perspective of an LVG biplane in flight