An ace with an American backer

In the summer of 1921, with the Treaty of Versailles strangling German aviation, Ernst Udet — 62 victories, second only to Richthofen among German aces — set up an aircraft company in Munich. His partners were designer Hans Henry Herrmann and Erich Scheuermann, and the money came from an American financier, William Pohl. The rules allowed only small, low-powered machines, so that is what they built: the single-seat U 1, first flown in May 1922 on a 22 kW Haacke twin, followed by a run of refined two-seaters, the U 2, U 4, U 6 and U 10.

The Flamingo and the handkerchief

The firm was inventive. Its U 8b was the first aircraft in Germany fitted with leading-edge slats, the tiny U 7 Kolibri weighed just 250 kg on a half-litre Douglas motorcycle engine, and the four-engined U 11 Kondor ventured into metal construction when only Junkers, Dornier and Rohrbach were doing so. But its hit was the U 12 Flamingo, first flown on 7 April 1925. Udet sold it with his own aerobatics, famously swooping low enough to pick a handkerchief off the airfield with a wingtip.

From liquidation to Messerschmitt

Showmanship could not cover the losses. The Kondor flopped, Udet himself walked out in 1925, Scheuermann followed in February 1926, and on 24 August 1926 the company was liquidated, its assets taken over by the Bavarian state. They went into the new Bayerische Flugzeugwerke at Augsburg, which kept building the Flamingo and later became Messerschmitt. Around 300 Flamingos were eventually built, under licence in Austria and Hungary too. Udet went on to a far darker career as a Luftwaffe general.

People

• Ernst Udet · founder, fighter ace — Left the company in 1925
• Hans Henry Herrmann · chief designer — Designed the U 1; briefly ran the firm in 1926

Records and firsts

• First aircraft in Germany fitted with slats: the U 8b