Igo Etrich

Ignaz "Igo" Etrich (December 25, 1879, Horní Staré Město, Trutnov, Bohemia – February 4, 1967, Salzburg, Austria), Austrian flight pioneer, pilot and fixed-wing aircraft developer.

Education

Igo went to school at Leipzig, where he came in contact with the works of Otto Lilienthal. His main interest was in aviation, the problems of bird flight. With his father, a factory-owner, he built a laboratory for developing aeroplanes. After the death of Lilienthal his father acquired some advanced gliders.

Aviation

Prof. Ahlborn had published a paper in 1897, in which he had described the flying seed of Zanonia macrocarpa. Etrich and his co-worker Franz Xaver Wels designed an unmanned glider of similar form and flew it successfully in 1904. Attempts to add an engine failed, but a successful manned glider was flown in 1906.

He also worked with Karl Illner.

The next stop of Igo Etrich was Vienna, where he had his second laboratory in the Wiener Prater at the Rotunde. In 1907 he built his Etrich I, the Praterspatz (Prater park Sparrow ) there. Due to the low power (24 hp) of the motor and the limited space for flying, the aircraft was unsuccessful. Further designs