Felix Kracht

Felix Kracht was born in Krefeld on 13 May 1912. As a schoolboy he was passionately interested in aviation. After graduating from the Technical University of Aachen, he put his theoretical knowledge into practice at the aeronautical association Flugwissenschaftliche Vereinigung Aachen (FVA) by building the performance glider FVA-10 “Rheinland”.

Kracht made a name for himself when in 1937 he crossed the Alps in this aircraft, which then went into series production. In the early 1940s he worked for the German Institute for Glider Research (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug – DFS) where he developed a number of gliders as well as experimental aircraft.

His career in industry started after the Second World War as Franco-German cooperation began to take off, notably through the Noratlas and Transall C-160 military transport aircraft project on which he worked for Nord Aviation in France. He moved back to Germany to head Deutsche Airbus GmbH which was in charge of coordinating and managing the activities of the various German aviation enterprises involved in the A300 programme. The experience he acquired in the Transall programme coordinating French and German work would be crucial for his role as Senior Vice President Production of the Airbus Industrie GIE, a position he held until 1981.

As such, he set up Airbus’ unique industrial organisation, eliminating redundancies and duplication of tasks while harnessing a broad selection of skills, (eliminating redundancies) and promoting trans-national collaboration. After his retirement, he often acted as an advisor to Airbus Industrie. Felix Kracht died at the age of 90 in Kirchweyhe near Bremen on October 3, 2002.