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Max Valier | |
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 Valier as depicted inAir Wonder Stories, February 1930. | |
| Born | (1895-02-09)9 February 1895 |
| Died | 17 May 1930(1930-05-17) (aged 35) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | University of Innsbruck |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
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Max Valier (9 February 1895 – 17 May 1930) was anAustrianrocketry pioneer. He was a leading figure in the world's first large-scale rocket program,Opel-RAK, and helped found the GermanVerein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR – "Spaceflight Society") that would bring together many of the minds that would later makespaceflight a reality in the 20th century.
Valier was born inBozen in theCounty of Tyrol (nowSouth Tyrol) and in 1913 enrolled to studyphysics at theUniversity of Innsbruck. He also trained as amachinist at a nearby factory. His studies were interrupted by the First World War, during which he served in theAustro-Hungarian army's air corps as an aerial observer.
After the war, Valier did not return to his studies, but became a freelance science writer. In 1923, he readHermann Oberth's landmark bookDie Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) and was inspired to write a similar work to explain Oberth's ideas in terms that could be understood by lay persons. With Oberth's assistance, he publishedDer Vorstoß in den Weltenraum (The Advance into Space) the following year. It was an outstanding success, going through six editions before 1930. He followed this with numerous articles on the subject of space travel, with titles like "Berlin to New York in One Hour" and "A Daring Trip to Mars".
In 1928 and 1929, he worked withFritz von Opel on a number of rocket-powered cars andaircraft within the world's first large-scale rocket programOpel-RAK.[1] For von Opel, these experimentations had also a very positive public relations effect for theOpel company, and for Valier, they were a way of further raising interest in rocketry amongst the general population.Friedrich Sander in these endeavours was chosen as the supplier of solid-fuel rocket motors. Valier's and von Opel's activities led to land and rail vehicle speed records, and eventually to the world's first rocket plane. The first public flight took place on September 30, 1929, piloted by von Opel. After theOpel RAK.1 flight, caused by theGreat Depression, the Opel RAK collaboration came to an end, von Opel left Germany in 1930, immigrated to the US and eventually to France and Switzerland. Valier then continued the rocket development on his own.
By the late 1920s, the VfR was focusing its efforts on liquid-fuelled rockets. Their first successful test firing with liquid fuel (five minutes) occurred in the Heylandt plant on 25 January 1930. On 19 April 1930 Valier performed the first test drive of arocket car withliquid propulsion, theValier-Heylandt Rak 7.
Valier was killed less than a month later when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench inBerlin. HisprotégéArthur Rudolph went on to develop an improved and safer version of Valier's engine.
Max Valier is still remembered in South Tyrol as one of the most famous inventors and scientists of this province, and a number of institutions bear his name:
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