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Helmut Hölzer facts for kids

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Helmut Hölzer (English: Hoelzer)
HolzerHelmut Huntsville.jpg
Helmut Hölzer in Huntsville, Alabama
Born (1912-02-27)February 27, 1912
Bad Liebenstein, Thüringen, German Empire
Died October 12, 1996(1996-10-12) (aged 84)
Huntsville, Alabama, United States
Alma mater Technische Hochschule Darmstadt
Known for Designing an electronic simulator for the V-2 rocket control system.
Scientific career
Fields Electrical Engineering, Applied mathematics
Institutions 1933-tbd: teaching

1939: Telefunken (Berlin)
1939-1945: Peenemünde
1940's-1950's: Fort Bliss/WSPG
1950's-1950's: Redstone Arsenal
1950's-1960's: ABMA

1960-1970's: Marshall Space Flight Center (Director, Computation Division)

Helmut Hoelzer was a Nazi Germany V-2 rocket engineer who was brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip. Hoelzer was the inventor and constructor of the world's first electronic analog computer.

Life

In October 1939, while working for the Telefunken electronics firm in Berlin, Hoelzer met with Ernst Steinhoff, Hermann Steuding, and Wernher von Braun regarding guide beams for a flying body. In late 1940 at Peenemünde, Hoelzer was head of the guide beam division (assistant Henry Otto Hirschler), which developed a guide-plane system which alternates a transmitted signal from two antennas a short distance apart, as well as a vacuum tube mixing device (German: Mischgerät) which corrected for momentum that would perturb an object that had been moved back on-track. By the fall of 1941, Hoelzer's "mixing device" was used to provide V-2 rocket rate measurement instead of rate gyros.

Then at the beginning of 1942, Hoelzer built an analog computer to calculate and simulate V-2 rocket trajectories Hoelzer's team also developed the Messina telemetry system. After evacuating Peenemünde for the Alpenfestung (Alpine Fortress), Hoelzer returned to Peenemünde via motorcycle to look for portions of his PhD dissertation prior to surrendering to United States forces at the end of World War II.

Hoelzer was a student of Alwin Walther.

Family

One of his grandchildren is Olympic swimmer Margaret Hoelzer.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Helmut Hölzer para niños

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