User:Tukulti65/Ludwig Fréderic Teichfuss

Ludwig Fréderic Teichfuss (Lucerne, 15 December 1884 - Pavullo nel Frignano, 11 July 1966) was an Italian designer.

Biography
Passionate about the technique since his youth, as well as a keen cyclist, in 1907 he became champion of Switzerland and participated in numerous competitions also in Italy, with good results. At the same time, he was fascinated by the gliding that began in those years.

Also in 1907 at Pian del Falco, near Sestola (a mountain town in the Modena Apennines), he made his first attempt at flying without an engine by building the "Aerocycle": a monoplane with a trolley that used two bicycle wheels, pushed from propellers rotated by pedals, but the attempt failed: after about 300 meters of take-off, the apparatus fell to the ground and Ludwig did not make any other attempts at flying that exploited only human strength.

Between 1908 and 1912 he worked as an electrician at the Bologna branch of the AEG; therefore, at the outbreak of the First World War, in order not to return to Switzerland he enlisted as a volunteer in the Deutsches Heer (the German imperial army), near Reims where he asked and obtained to enlist in the first German air forces. Thanks to his background as a technician, he was sent to Mannheim to pursue a specialization course as a motor engineer and aeronautical fitter, acquiring the experiences that would later help him in the aeronautical sector.

At the end of the war, Teichfuss married and settled in Pavullo nel Frignano, making his name Italian in Luigi Federico Teichfuss.

In 1920, the construction of the Condor I glider began at the Bologna velodrome, which was later presented in Asiago in October 1924, on the occasion of the first international gliding competition. This was followed by the Condor II and the Condor III.

Around 1920 "I Piani di Pavullo", an area south of Pavullo, was considered particularly interesting by Luigi Teichfuss and Umberto Nannini. In 1923 construction work began and on 2 July 1931, by Royal Decree n. 1610, the airport of Pavullo was born, with the annexed first pilot school for gliding, in which Techfuss was appointed chief designer.

Among the innovations of the Pavullo flying school there is the development of the winch towing which supplanted the elastic throw (then in vogue).

In the following years Teichfuss opened the Alianti workshop, at the "G. Paolucci" airport (built by Teichfuss himself), complete with the design office in "Le Aie", behind his home.

In this way the first factory in Italy specialized in equipment for gliding was born: Luigi Teichfuss, F.A.L. Teichfuss.

In 1943, after the destruction of the "G. Paolucci "by German soldiers before their retreat to the north, as well as all the airplanes in the field and in the sheds, Teichfuss interrupted his activity after having planned 24 gliders, for a total of at least 60 functioning specimens: altogether 40 % of Italian gliders produced from 1923 to 1943.