Ludwig Bölkow

Ludwig Bölkow was born in Schwerin on 30 June 1912. Upon leaving school, he carried out practical training at Heinkel in Warnemünde before studying Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering in Berlin Charlottenburg. In 1939, Bölkow took up a position at Messerschmitt AG and worked on a number of projects including the Me 262 jet fighter.

In 1948, Bölkow set up an engineering office in Stuttgart and in 1954 he founded Bölkow Entwicklungen KG. The company worked on projects in the fields of light aircraft, helicopters and missile systems. In 1958 the company moved its headquarters to Ottobrunn near Munich.

Between 1959 and 1965, he founded the plant in Donauwörth that produced the influential Bo 105 helicopter. During this period, he also collaborated with Heinkel and Messerschmitt in the consortium Entwicklungsring Süd, dedicated to development and design of the vertical-lift-off fighter jet VJ 101 C. A merger in 1969 formed Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH (MBB), then becoming the largest and leading company of aeronautic, aerospace, defence and transport technology in Germany under the management of Ludwig Bölkow.

After the foundation of the Airbus Industrie GIE in 1970, MBB took on the German share in the A300 aircraft programme. Ludwig Bölkow left MBB in 1983 and established foundations dedicated to environmentally compatible energy and transportation systems. He died at the age of 91 in 2003.