Wolfgang Späte

Wolfgang Späte was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, with 99 victories claimed. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. For fighter pilots it was a quantifiable measure of skill and combat success. He used an early version of the speed to fly theory to win the 1938 Rhön gliding competition flying a DFS Reiher. Already a talented glider pilot before the war, he went on to become one of the Luftwaffe's foremost test pilots.