Klemperer was engaged in the development of airships or zeppelins, both in Germany and the US, high altitude ballons, specialized optics, a high-speed wide-angle cine-camera, analogue computers, equipment for data processing, and flight simulators.

Throughout his career he published regularly, often with his first and middle names abbreviated to W. B. Klemperer, in scientific magazines on aerodynamics, space flight and navigation, as well as sailplanes.

In 1920 he joined the Aachen Aerodynamics Institute as an assistant to Professor Theodore von Kármán, who later became the founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Here he was involved in the development of zeppelins and was able to assemble a body of research around wind-tunnel experiments on air loads and moments acting on airships in curved flight and when moored, which formed the basis of his doctorate thesis.

His special talent for instrument design resulted in the development of a high-speed wide-angle cine-camera, analogue computers,[6] equipment for data processing, and flight simulators.

His gift for theoretical analysis led him in later years into the realm of space navigation, where he and his colleagues made valuable contributions.

In 1912, while he was still at school, aged only 19, he started to develop and build his first motor plane, a tail-first aircraft powered by a 55 horsepower (41 kW) radial engine.

During this war he served in the Austrian Airforce, where he was able to acquire vast experience in flight and gained his pilots license of the FAI (No 2702 Austria).

The result of the efforts is a glider based on a Junkers low-wing-monoplane aircraft design with airfoil wings[9] called "Schwatze-Düvel" ("black devil" in Aachen dialect).

Klemperer, competing at the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft gliding competition with this glider, scored a distance record at his first attendance in 1920 with a flight of 2.2 kilometres (1.4 mi).