- Walter Blume
Professor Dipl-Ing Walter Blume (
10 January 1896 -27 May 1964 ) was a German fighter ace of World War I and an aircraft designer. He was born inHannover, Germany . During World War I, he flew with Jastas 26 and 9, gaining 28 aerial victories and earning theIron Cross and Blue MaxPour le Merite .He was born in Silesia.
He originally served in the German army. After being wounded, he trained as a pilot. He began his pilot's career flying two-seater aircraft. From there, he moved on to flying single-seat fighters for
Jasta 26 . This career path from ground service to fighter pilot was a common one in World War I, for both German and French pilots.He scored his first victory for
Jasta 26 on 10 May 1917. He became an ace on 24 October 1917. He transferred out ofJasta 26 after his sixth triumph, which occurred on 5 November 1917. His cause of transfer was a serious chest wound.Blume scored 22 more victories, all with his new squadron,
Jasta 9 . With the exception of double scores on 31 August 1918 and 14 September 1918, he accumulated his successes singly. He shot down enemy airplanes exclusively, and the great majority of them were opposing fighters. Only four of his victories were over two-seater aircraft. For his own part, he flew in both Albatros fighters and theFokker D.VII .Blume was awarded the
Pour le Merite on 2 October 1918, the same day as his 27th and penultimate victory.After World War I, he remained in aviation. He trained as a
aeronautical engineer and joined the GermanArado Flugzeugwerke in the mid 1920s. He was involved in the design of the Arado Ar 96 and also the Ar 95. In about 1932 he was appointed Chief Design Engineer of Arado Flugzeugwerke. Over the next 10 years he was responsible for the design of the Ar 234 Jet Twin-Jet reconnaissance aircraft and saw it through its development in several different prototypes and finally to the Twin-Jet bomber which was assigned the name Ar 234d Blitz. Towards the end of WWII he lead the Arado Design team to upgrade the Ar 234 to a Four-Jet Bomber variant but which only reached "Proof of Concept" form. He attempted to revive one of his designs for Arado as a light civil aircraft, theBlume Bl.502 , but met with no commercial success. After the German surrender he was captured by the Russian Army and taken to Russia where for several years he helped develop their fledgling jet aircraft program.References/Outside links
*
*Interview, Dr Christopher John Thwaites , 2007, Professor Walter Blume, Cameron Wu,
19 August 2007 * http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/blume.php Accessed 1 September 2008.
* http://books.google.com/books?id=5qt5DYUzs88C&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=walter+blume+ace&source=web&ots=x_HeesOS4J&sig=i8NIxD7xiITUoIPoU1qNSY9U5Ck&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Accessed 1 September 2008.
* http://books.google.com/books?id=LwB-W0KicEAC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=walter+blume+ace&source=web&ots=qi_168PK4g&sig=DzTguzPXoV4uZ08vnUlgFRPJHDw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result Accessed 1 September 2008.
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