Hanna Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia, on
March 29,1912, the daughter of an ophthalmologist.

She was germany's leading woman stunt pilot and an enthusiastic admirer of Hitler. Hanna begged to be allowed to die with him in the Fuhrer bunker at the end of WWII.

She supported Hitler and the cause of national Socialism
until the bitter end and flew the last plane out of Berlin hours
before the fall to the communists.

n 1932, medical student Hanna Reitsch began soaring and went on to become one of the first people to cross the Alps in a glider. After graduating to powered aircraft, her daring and skill landed her in the forefront of Germany's aviation efforts.

Hanna was the only woman ever to be awarded the Iron Cross and Luftwaffe Diamond Clasp.

In Nazi Germany of 1937 Hanna Reitsch was a role-model, her earlier fame had by then spread beyond national boundaries, and Ernst Udet appointed her as a test pilot to the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin.

She went on to set more than 40 altitude and endurance records in motorless and powered aircraft in her lifetime.

One of her first feats was to fly the world's first practical helicopter inside of an exhibition hall.

She wanted to be a flying missionary doctor but, after the Versailles Treaty had clipped Germany's wings, she became an excellent glider pilot. She set records, she worked as a movie stand-in flyer, and she went on an expedition to study weather in South America. Hitler made her an honorary flight captain, the first woman to receive that award.

As the world's first female test pilot and helicopter pilot, Hanna flew everything the Third Reich had: from the first helicopter (the Focke-Achgelis) to the prototype of a piloted V-1.

The story of the world's most extraordinary test pilot. Personal test flight stories of such aircraft as the Me163 "Rocket Aircraft" in which Hanna climbs to 30,000 ft. in 90 seconds
and it almost cost her life.

She flys a sailplane into a thundercloud and climb 100 mph to 10,500 feet and has the aircraft and controls lock up from icing. By the grace of God, she survives. Land with Hanna in a sailplane in the middle of a football game in South America. The landing was easy, but the crowd was not.

In 1937, the re-formed Luftwaffe hired her as a civilian test pilot. She accepted with near reverence, calling German warplanes, "Guardians of the portals of peace." Professor Heinrich Focke joined forces to conduct helicopter research.

The result was the production of the FW-61, based on the fuselage of a small biplane trainer with two outriggers supporting the contra-rotating rotors. The cut-down propellor mounted on the front of the radial engine was used only for cooling.

Even before the second World War, Hanna was recognized as Germany's leading aviatrix for her work flying experimental aircraft. One of her first feats was to fly the world's first practical helicopter inside of an exhibition hall. Always the professional flier, she was quickly recruited as a test pilot.

The world's first female test pilot became known for her courage as she took on many unbelievably dangerous jobs, including testing a V-1 flying bomb equipped with a cockpit.

It is lesser known that the Germans designed a manned version of the V-1 called the V-1e. The V-1e was not intended to be recovered. It would have been launched, then guided to its target by a pilot on a suicide mission. Similar to the Japanese kamikaze concept, the V-1e group was code-named Project Reichenberg.

The V-1e was about 27 feet long and employed a cockpit and pilot instrumentation. The V-1e was test flown several times by German test pilot Hanna Reitsch. Reitsch confirmed that the basic V-1 airframe was prone to severe vibration resulting from engine noise.

She believed the deployment of the V-1e as introduced would result in significant pilot losses, even if the pilot had agreed to perform a suicide mission. The Germans could not sustain design changes late in the war, so the V-1e was never deployed in combat.