Who was Joachim Kuettner?

[edwest4]

How did this man, who was a glider pilot, get to be director of the Mercury Redstone project? There is nothing in his published background that gives any clues.

 

[Michel Van]

Joachim Küttner was a German atmospheric scientist
who used glider to test some of his theories on lee waves
were he also set in 1937, the first world altitude record for gliders of 22,300 feet with out without oxygen mask.
during the war was he test pilot for Doriner, Messerschmitt and Zeppelin
He first fly the Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant glider (in time the world largest glider ever fly)

After the War he went to USA to join Geophysical Research Directorate in Cambridge (Massachusetts)
and later joined the Sierra Wave Project as scientific field director, at University of California.
and brake the record on lounges fly time and distance for Glider
and broke his old glider record this time 13015 m to study Jetstream
impress with his work NASA offer him a job at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

Küttner became Centers Director of Mercury program, after that he was Director of Apollo System Office.
from 1965 was Chief Scientist at National Satellite Center in Washington

then business unit manager in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
and in 1971 International Director of Global Atmospheric Research Program of the WMO
in end he work in National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and
the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder.

after him is called the Küttner-Preis of 10.000 Dollar, for long-range glider fly of 2500 km in a straight line.

http://www.mountain-wave-project.com/press/Kuettner_Magazin_Segelfliegen_engl_web.pdf
http://ostiv.org/jpkuettner.pdf

 

[edwest4]

Thank you.



Ed