Alexander Martin Lippisch (2 November 1894 – 11 February 1976) was a German engineer who studied how air moves around objects, known as aerodynamics. He helped scientists understand how aircraft without tails, delta wings, and the ground effect work. He also worked in the United States. In the Opel-RAK program, he designed the first glider powered by rockets.

He created delta wing designs that were used in supersonic fighter planes and hang gliders. People who worked with him continued to develop ideas about delta wings and supersonic flight throughout the 20th century. His most well-known designs include the Messerschmitt Me 163, a rocket-powered airplane, and the Dornier Aerodyne.

Early life

Lippisch was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. He later remembered that his interest in flying began after seeing a demonstration by Orville Wright at Tempelhof Field in Berlin in September 1909. However, he originally planned to study art, as his father had done, until World War I began. While serving in the German Army from 1915 to 1918, Lippisch worked as an aerial photographer and mapper, which gave him the opportunity to fly.

Early aircraft designs

After the war, Lippisch worked with the Zeppelin Company. During this time, he became interested in tailless aircraft. In 1921, his first design to be built by his friend Gottlob Espenlaub was the Espenlaub E-2 glider. This marked the start of a research program that led to about fifty designs during the 1920s and 1930s. Lippisch’s growing reputation led to his appointment in 1925 as director of the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft (RRG), a glider organization that included research groups and construction facilities.

At the same time, Lippisch designed conventional gliders, such as the Wien in 1927 and its successor, the Fafnir in 1930. In 1928, he participated in the Opel-RAK program led by Fritz von Opel and Max Valier. Lippisch’s tail-first Ente (Duck) was fitted with powder rockets by Friedrich Wilhelm Sander’s company and became the first aircraft to fly using rocket power. Beginning in 1927, Lippisch returned to tailless aircraft design, creating a series of models named Storch I–Storch IX (Stork I–IX), mostly gliders. These designs received little interest from the government or private industry.

Delta wing designs

After working on the Storch series, Lippisch created his Delta designs. These aircraft were mostly tailless, like the Storch series. They included the earliest successful delta wing designs. In 1931, the Delta I glider made its first flight. Later, the Delta II and III were built.

The Delta IV design had an engine and was built in two versions called the Fieseler F3 Wespe. Lippisch later named these versions Delta IVa and IVb. A third version, Delta IVc, was built as the DFS 39. This design directly led to the development of the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, which Lippisch also called the Delta IVd.

The Delta V, built as the DFS 40, had a blended wing body design to compare with the DFS 39.

In 1933, the RGG was reorganized into the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS). The Delta IVd and Delta V were then named DFS 39 and DFS 40. Between 1931 and 1939, Lippisch saw five Delta designs built, numbered Delta I to V.

Later, while working at Messerschmitt, he started designing the Delta VI. This design was connected to several Messerschmitt projects. A prototype was being built when it was destroyed in a bombing attack.

World War II projects

In early 1939, the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) moved Lippisch and his team to work at the Messerschmitt factory in Augsburg to design a fast fighter plane using rocket engines being developed by Hellmuth Walter. The team quickly changed their latest design, the DFS 194, to use rocket power. The first working model flew successfully in early 1940. This showed the technology that would later become the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet.

Although the Komet was a new idea, it did not work well as a weapon. Lippisch and Messerschmitt often had disagreements. In 1943, Lippisch moved to Vienna's Aeronautical Research Institute (LFW) in Wiener Neustadt to lead his own team focused on high-speed flight challenges. That same year, he earned a doctorate in engineering from the University of Heidelberg. Hermann Behrbohm, a mathematician, joined Lippisch part-time and also worked for Messerschmitt in Oberammergau after development moved to an underground facility following air raids on Augsburg in February 1944.

Wind tunnel tests in 1939 showed that a delta wing was a good shape for planes flying faster than sound. Lippisch began designing a supersonic fighter powered by a ramjet engine, called the Lippisch P.13a. However, by the end of the war, the project only reached the stage of building a glider model, the DM-1.

Even though the P.13a never flew, Lippisch’s work helped develop ideas about delta wings and supersonic flight. His delta wing design proved to be very stable and efficient at very high speeds.

In the 1950s, government-funded projects, such as those supported by Sweden’s Defence Act of 1958, aimed to quickly attack enemy planes carrying nuclear weapons, like the Tupolev Tu-16, before they reached their targets.

After the war, research from Messerschmitt and Lippisch’s teams continued through others:

• Hermann Behrbohm worked for the French Aerodynamic Research and Development Institute (BEE) starting in 1946 in Germany’s French occupation zone. His work helped create the Dassault Mirage.
• From 1951, Behrbohm worked for Saab in Sweden, contributing to the development of the Saab 35 Draken and Saab 37 Viggen supersonic delta-wing fighters. Bertil Dillner worked with Behrbohm at Saab.
• Bertil Dillner moved to the United States in 1967 and worked for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle on the supersonic Boeing 2707 SST passenger jet from 1967 to 1972. He also studied the aerodynamics of hypersonic flight for the Space Shuttle. Dillner was Boeing’s chief aerodynamic engineer from 1972 to 1981. He later became chief engineer for Boeing Defense, Space & Security from 1981 to 1985 and retired in 1988.

Postwar work in the United States

After World War II, Lippisch, like many German scientists, was brought to the United States through Operation Paperclip. He worked at the White Sands Missile Range.

From 1950 to 1964, Lippisch was employed by the Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which had a division focused on aircraft. During this time, his focus shifted to ground effect craft. He developed an aerofoil boat research seaplane called the X-112, which was tested in 1963. However, Lippisch was diagnosed with cancer and left his position at Collins.

After recovering in 1966, he started his own research company, Lippisch Research Corporation. His work attracted the attention of the West German government. Prototypes for the aerodyne and ground-effect craft RFB X-113 (1970) and RFB X-114 (1977) were built, but no further development occurred. The Kiekhaefer Mercury company also showed interest in his ground-effect craft and tested one of his designs as the Aeroskimmer, but eventually lost interest.

Lippisch designed a VTOL craft he called an "aerodyne." Its body included a large ducted rotor, and the thrust could be adjusted to move downward for vertical takeoff and landing or backward for forward flight. He worked mainly with two companies to develop this concept.

The Collins Aerodyne, created during his time at Collins, used a horizontal-axis rotor. The thrust from the rotor was directed through large flaps located behind it. The craft was stabilized by a long, high tail extending from above the flaps.

The Dornier Aerodyne was a smaller drone that took off and landed vertically and rotated horizontally to fly forward.

Neither design advanced beyond the prototype stage.

Death and legacy

Lippisch died in Cedar Rapids on 11 February 1976. In 1985, he was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

Some Lippisch designs

• Lippisch SG-38 Zögling, 1926
• RRG Storch V, a powered tailless glider, 1929
• DFS 39, a tailless research aircraft
• DFS 40, a tailless research aircraft
• DFS 193, an experimental aircraft
• DFS 194, a rocket-powered research aircraft, an early version of the Me 163
• Lippisch P.01-111, designed during "Projekt X," which led to the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
• Lippisch Li P.04, a tailless airplane designed to compete with the Messerschmitt Me 329
• Lippisch Li P.10, a tailless bomber design from 1942
• Lippisch P.11, designed to compete with the Horten Ho 229
• Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
• Lippisch P.13, a push-pull bomber design from 1943
• Lippisch P.13a, a unique delta-winged, ramjet-powered interceptor
• Lippisch P.13b, a unique airplane powered by a rotating fuel-table of lignite due to fuel shortages in Germany during the late stages of World War 2
• Lippisch P.15, a development of the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
• Lippisch P.20, a development of the P.15
• Dornier Aerodyne, a wingless VTOL unmanned aircraft (UAV) from 1972