I've just been reading a copy of BALPA's April/May "The Log" magazine (we're so up-to-date out here). Neil Marshall has written a stunning article about that strange woman, Hanna Reitsch. How sad that such a skilled individual should choose for almost all her life to swear allegiance to such a despicable regime.
Most of us probably already knew about her test-flying on the Gigant glider (unboosted controls, she was only 5' 0.5" tall...), the Fi103 piloted V1 and her early helicopter work. However, up for consideration as some of the top examples of flying-associated skill have to be:
- flying trials on Barrage Balloon Cable-Cutting, where her Do17 was so badly damaged that no-one watching thought she'd get back down.
- flying trials on Me163 Komet where, having just stalled-in because the undercarriage-trolley had failed to release and lost her nose in the ensuing crash-landing (among other injuries) she insisted on writing up the flight report before allowing herself to be stretchered off. Took her 18 months to recover to fully fit.
- the whole saga of her flight to Berlin in April 1945. Never mind the bullet-riddled 190 she and the General landed in at Gatow, how about the Fi156 trip from there to the city centre? She was in the back seat when the fella up front was hit by a round which exploded in the cockpit, almost entirely blowing off his foot. Meanwhile, all fuel tanks had been punctured by small-arms fire. Reitsch leans over the now-unconscious front-seater and lands in a tiny rubble-free area near the Brandenburg Gate.
What a waste of incredible talent, eh?