RUMPLER, EDUARD

RUMPLER, EDUARD (1872–1940), German pioneer aircraft manufacturer. Rumpler, who was born in Vienna, began in 1908 to make his Rumplertaube, an observation plane capable of flying at what was then the great height of 25,000 feet. He built several types of plane. His planes made the first long-distance land flights in Germany, and were used by the Germans in World War I. After the war, he conceived plans for 150-seater transatlantic airplanes. However, a German aircraft industry was prohibited under the terms of the Versailles Treaty. Rumpler had also worked in the Daimler and Adler works on automobiles, and so he concentrated his postwar work in this field. In 1919 he introduced the Rumplertropfen-auto, and in 1926 he brought out the first car with front axle drive. He was forced to retire by the Nazis in 1933. (Samuel Aaron Miller)