Friedrich Karl von Koenig-Warthausen
German aviator (1906–1986)
Friedrich Karl Richard Paul August Freiherr Koenig von und zu Warthausen (2 April 1906 – 15 December 1986) was a German aviator who made the first solo flight around the world in 1928–1929. His flight took him eastwards from Berlin to Moscow, then to the Persian Gulf, across northern India and to Siam. He travelled mostly by ship to China and Japan, then across the Pacific Ocean. After flying across the United States, he again took a ship back to Europe, ending his flight in Hanover after 15 months. For this feat he was awarded the Hindenburg Cup.
Early life and education
The eldest son of Friedrich Karl Wilhelm Freiherr Koenig von und zu Warthausen (1863–1948), and his wife Elisabeth Hedwig Marie Anna von Wiedebach und Nostiz-Jänkendorf (1878–1961), he was born at the family home of Schloss Warthausen, close to the town of Biberach an der Riss in Baden-Württemberg. He attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium boarding school in Munich, and in February 1924 graduated from the high school in Kempten, Allgäu, before studying law and economics at universities in Munich, Königsberg, Berlin, and England, while also pursuing his enthusiasm for sailing and flying, obtaining his pilot's licence after only 12 hours instruction.
Round-the-world flight
In 1928 President Hindenburg announced the creation of the Hindenburg Cup, awarded annually for the best sporting flight by an amateur pilot with a prize of 10,000 Reichsmarks. Koenig-Warthausen was determined to win the prize and persuaded his parents to buy him a Klemm Daimler L.20B. This aircraft, registration number D-1433, which he named Kamerad, was a two-seater low-wing monoplane with an empty weight of only 254 kilograms (560 lb), a top speed of 105 kilometres per hour (65 mph) and landing speed of just 32 kilometres per hour (20 mph), and powered by an air-cooled, two-cylinder Daimler-Benz F-7502 boxer engine delivering only 20 hp (15 kW) This aircraft, with its high aspect ratio and very low wing loading, would today be classified as an ultralight.
Koenig-Warthausen took off from Berlin Tempelhof Airport at midnight on 9 August 1928, having less than 20 hours solo flying experience, only five of those in the Klemm.
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