14 Dec 06
Opel
Like its fellow German manufacturers, Adam Opel AG played its part in the two World Wars of the last century. Founded in 1862, intially to make sewing machines and then bicycles before building its first car in 1899, Opel built around 700 BMW-developed six-cylinder engines during World War I to power the Albatros DVa fighter planes. Opel - which had been bought by General Motors in 1929 - then took a more controversial role under Hitler and the rule of the Third Reich. Despite its American ownership, in 1938 it started building gears, intercoolers and other components for the Luftwaffe's Junkers bombers, as well as landmines, torpedos and the Blitz truck for the military.
Opel's other (earlier) venture into the air was less politically charged - and much wackier. Fritz Adam Hermann von Opel, grandson of the company's founder, was obsessed by rocket propulsion. Given the position of director of testing and publicity at the family firm, he decided to create a series of rocket-propelled vehicles for publicity stunts. First up was the RAK.1 car (1928), which Opel himself demonstrated - it did just 47mph - and then the RAK.2, which achieved a more spectacular 143mph. RAK.3 was a rocket-powered railway locomotive, with 30 rockets driving it to 254kph (157mph), and then Opel went for the big one: a rocket-powered plane.
Opel commissioned Alexander Lippisch to build him one of his Ente ('duck') gliders, which then had rocket motors attached by rocket specialist Julius Hatry and pyrotechnics expert Friedrich Sander; the names of both these consultants were emblazoned on the fuselage. The first rocket-powered RAK.1 glider exploded on a test flight, but the second flew in front of a large crowd at Frankfurt in September 1929. It landed heavily, though, and was damaged beyond repair; Opel lost interest in making another, and soon after, the GM buy-out of Opel led to his departure from the firm.
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