Robert Lusser

In the post-war era, Lusser also pioneered the development of modern ski bindings, introducing the first teflon anti-friction pads to improve release.

[2] Lusser's first jobs were with the Klemm and Heinkel companies, before joining the newly relaunched Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Works) in 1933.

The He 280 was the first jet fighter to leave the drawing board, but which the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium - "Reich Aviation Ministry") passed over in favour of the Messerschmitt Me 262.

From Heinkel, Lusser went to Fieseler, and there became involved with the company's efforts to produce a pilotless aircraft, initially designated the Fi 103.

The project was an initiative of the two companies, begun by Argus as early as 1934, and received little official interest until Erhard Milch recognised its potential in 1942 and assigned it high priority.

There, he worked for the Navy, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and in 1953, re-joined von Braun's rocketry team at Huntsville, Alabama.

Based on these calculations, he pronounced that von Braun's ambitions of reaching the Moon and Mars were doomed to failure because of the complexity of the spacecraft required.

His alarming reliability study of the adaptations that the company was making to the F-104 Starfighter that it was building under licence turned out to be tragically correct.