ABSTRACT
Ernst Heinrich Heinkel was born on January 24, 1888, the son of the local plumber in the small south German town of Grunbach. In 1907, Heinkel enrolled in the engineering program at the Technische Hochshule in Stuttgart. Heinkel shared with many in his generation a fascination for the achievements of early aviation. He became convinced that the future of aviation lay with heavier-than-air craft. In 1914, shortly before the start of World War I, Heinkel received an offer to become technical director of the Hansa Aircraft Company. With his aircraft company financially secure, Heinkel returned in the mid-1920's to his first love: experimental design. It was in this capacity that he revealed himself as a genius of aeronautics. Heinkel was a major figure in the development of European military and commercial aviation in the first half of the twentieth century, noted for advanced designs and the first practical jet- and rocket-propelled aircraft.
