Alexander Martin Lippisch (2 November 1894 – 11 February 1976) was a German aeronautical engineer, a pioneer of aerodynamics who made important contributions to the understanding of tailless aircraft, delta wings and the ground effect, and also worked in the U.S.

He later recalled that his interest in aviation began with a demonstration conducted by Orville Wright over Tempelhof Field in Berlin in September 1909.

[2] Nonetheless, he planned to follow his father's footsteps into art school, until the outbreak of World War I intervened.

Lippisch's growing reputation saw him appointed in 1925 to director of the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft (RRG), a glider organisation including research groups and construction facilities.

In early 1939, the Reichsluftfahrtsministerium (RLM, Reich Aviation Ministry) transferred Lippisch and his team to work at the Messerschmitt factory in Augsburg, in order to design a high-speed fighter aircraft around the rocket engines[5] then under development by Hellmuth Walter.

The team quickly adapted their most recent design, the DFS 194, to rocket power, the first example successfully flying in early 1940.

In 1943, Lippisch transferred to Vienna's Aeronautical Research Institute (Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Wien, LFW) in Wiener Neustadt, in an own design bureau to concentrate on the problems of high-speed flight.

Lippisch's delta wing concept proved to be very steady and efficient in very high speed supersonic flight.

This 1950s government-funded development (like that enabled by the Swedish Defence Act of 1958) was intended for swift attack of strategic nuclear weapons bombers such as the Tupolev Tu-16 before they reached their targets.

Its fuselage comprised a large ducted rotor, and the thrust could be varied between downwards for vertical takeoff and landing, and backwards for forward flight.

The Collins Aerodyne, developed while he was there, had a horizontal-axis rotor with the efflux directed via large flaps located immediately behind it.

The Dornier Aerodyne was a smaller drone which sat vertically for takeoff and landing, and the whole craft rotated horizontally for forward flight.