Gottlob Espenlaub nicknamed Espe, was an inventor who specialized in early types of aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

, specifically gliders

Glider aircraft

Glider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...

 and rocket propulsion systems

Rocket propellant

Rocket propellant is mass that is stored in some form of propellant tank, prior to being used as the propulsive mass that is ejected from a rocket engine in the form of a fluid jet to produce thrust. A fuel propellant is often burned with an oxidizer propellant to produce large volumes of very hot...

 designed for them. He invented a number of different aircraft, focusing on tailless designs. Espenlaub co-founded the practice of aerotowing.

Aeronautic career

As a young man Espenlaub served as a joiner

Joiner

A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...

 to aircraft builders. He helped Alexander Lippisch

Alexander Lippisch

Alexander Martin Lippisch was a German pioneer of aerodynamics. He made important contributions to the understanding of flying wings, delta wings and the ground effect. His most famous design is the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor.Lippisch was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria...

 to build a style of glider in 1921 according to Lippisch's designs. The glider was subsequently dubbed the Lippisch-Espenlaub E-2 glider, due to Espenlaub's participation in its creation. Espenlaub began building his own rocket propelled gliders

Rocket glider

A rocket glider, also known as rocket-propelled glider, is a glider aircraft that is powered by rocket power that glides to an unpowered landing...

 in 1928, conducting his first rocket test on October 22, 1929. His rocket glider for this test was dubbed the RAK-3 and it featured missiles attached to the wings. During the flight, these missiles caught the tail on fire, forcing an early landing. Due to this, many of Espenlaub's later designs would feature tailless gliders.

After conducting further tests, he improved his design and then did another test with his glider in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 1930, achieving a speed of 90 kilometers per hour. He had already been known as a "renowned German sailplane pilot" before, because of his various designs and his piloting abilities. Therefore he was asked to test fly numerous new kinds of aircraft, such as the A2 airplane in 1929 built by Alexander Soldenhoff.

Espenlaub also served as a theorist and implementor in terms of aircraft design and the future abilities of aircraft. He and Gerhard Fieseler

Gerhard Fieseler

Gerhard Fieseler was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer....

 conducted a number of demonstrations in 1927 at Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 on the idea of aerotowing and its feasibility in the air. It was the first time this idea was shown, and it became widely used after Espenlaub's and Fieseler's demonstrations.

Automotive designs

Both before and after the war, Espenlaub produced innovative streamliner

Streamliner

A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...

automotive designs, but none were commercially successful.