"blowing it off" using a strong flow of air to disrupt it (5).
Full scale suction wing aircraft were built for purposes of
testing this concept. These were the Junkers "Absaugeflugzeug"
(suction aircraft) AF-l and the Fieseler "Absaugestorch"
(suction-stork) AF-2.
Concurrent with these experiments, work was being done into the
feasibility of circular wings. This work also began in the 1930s
with the basic ideas being credited to Professor Ludwig Prandtl.
Early scientific papers on circular winged aircraft were written
beginning in 1936 by Wilhelm Kinner (6) and in 1938 by M. Hansen
(7). Both of these scientists worked at the Aerodynamic Research
Facility at Goettingen. By 1941 Dr. Alexander Lippisch was also
engaged in experimentation on circular wings at the Messerschmitt
firm. His design, designated J1253, was tested at the windtunnel at Goettingen (8). Dr. Lippisch was visited by Dr
Giuseppe Belluzzo while at Messerschmitt in Augsburg and Lippisch
worked together with Dr. F. Ringlib on a "Drehfluegel" or
"rotating wing" which was tested at Peenemuende (9). As with
suction wings, a body of scientific literature from those times
documents this early circular-wing experimentation.
The genius of the German designers was to combine the ideas of
suction and circular wings into a single aircraft. Housing
complete aircraft within its wing would eliminate the fuselage
and so eliminate an unnecessary, drag-causing structure.
Prandtl and Lippisch were not comparably to Schiever and
Habermohl. Prandtl and Lippisch are not even comparable to Dr.
Richard Miethe. Pradtl and Lippisch were senior scientists who
were well established in their worlds, either of whom would have
been capable of heading a major project. In fact they did. In
fact neither the Schriever-Habermohl or what we have called the
Miethe-Bellonzo projects were major projects. This is another
significance of what is being discussed here because what is
being discussed here is a completely different organization and
understanding of German flying discs than has been presented
heretofore.
Remember that controlling authority for both the SchrieverHabermohl and the Miethe-Bellonzo projects came from officials in
Peenemuende? J. Andreas Epp makes the point in his book that he
originated the idea of the Schriever-Habermohl-type of flying
disc and actually made a model of this flying craft. Setting
aside for the moment the subject or originality, Epp sent his
model to General Ernst Udet of the Luftwaffe whom he had met as a
child. General Udet must have been impressed with this idea
because he sent the plans and model to Peenemuende for
evaluation. Peenemuende authorized the Schriever-Habermohl team
to further develop the idea and as you might recall, Epp chided
Schriever for straying from his original blade dimensions while
crediting Habermohl for keeping them. The point is that
Peenemuende set up Schriever and Habermohl to construct and
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