X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Rudolf Nebel


Berlin rocket launching site

It was inaugurated in September 1930, using the site and the buildings of a disused French ammunitions depot which Rudolf Nebel managed to rent from the Prussian war ministry.

Halberstadt D.II

Believed to have been first tried within the first six months of 1916, future German rocketry pioneer Leutnant Rudolf Nebel, then flying as a fighter pilot with Jasta 5, one of the earliest German fighter squadrons within the Luftstreitkräfte, used a Halberstadt D.II aircraft of that unit in the first known German attempt at arming an aircraft with wing-mounted rockets as long range armament.

Werfer-Granate 21

Rudolf Nebel, who had pioneered German use of wing-mounted offensive rocketry in World War I with the Luftstreitkräfte.


Klaus Riedel

While in Berlin, he attended a public lecture on rocketry by Rudolf Nebel on behalf of Germany's amateur rocket group, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR - "Spaceflight Society") and joined the group straight away, becoming very active in its efforts to build a working rocket that resulted in the Mirak and Repulsor rockets, providing his family's farm as a testing ground.


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