Heinrich Focke

He built a glider in 1909, and his first motorised plane, the Kolthoff-Focke A III, a year later. The A III was too underpowered to be airworthy. His next model, the A IV allowed his first motorised flight in 1912. He then joined forces with Georg Wulf[?] and in 1914 they built the Focke-Wulf A VI.

After the end of World War I, experimentation continued. Focke and Wulf built the new A VII around the engine from the A VI.

In 1923, with Wulf and Dr. Werner Neumann, Focke co-founded Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH, which developed and built large numbers of aircraft to support the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Before the outbreak of war, Focke had parted ways from the company that continued to bear his name. In 1937 shareholder pressure ousted him, and he founded, with Gerd Achgelis[?], another company Focke Achgelis to specialise in helicopters.