H3: “Needs Must” Project Natter and the Genesis of Space Medicine

In 1944 the Luftwaffe was losing the air battle against bombing raids over the Reich. Radical measures were being considered to protect war critical industries. Among many other projects, they contracted a small aircraft company, the Bachem Werk, to develop a crewed vertical take-off rocket interceptor called Natter, for point defence. This plan would require for the first time in aviation history the vertical launch of a human being under rocket power. The Natter was designed to reach the bombers flying overhead at an altitude of 11 kilometres in about 60 seconds. Such a piloted flight posed many new and challenging problems for the aviation medical experts. Brett will outline those problems and describe how they were tackled culminating in the historic first rocket powered vertical take-off of a human being on 1 March 1945. As a result of this historic project, the fundamental principles required for crewed rocket flight…