Johannes Winkler built and flew a number of pioneering rockets in Germany and was the first President of the VfR. After the failure of his HW-2 rocket he returned to his old job at Junkers, and then worked for the government Luftforschungsanstalt (Aeronautical Research Institute) during World War II. Although he designed a number of JATO units and sounding rockets, none were ever put into production. He died at Braunschweig-Querum on 27 December 1947.

• First liquid-fuel rocket in Europe.

  First liquid-fuel rocket successfully fired in Europe, a methane-liquid oxygen rocket constructed by Johannes Winkler and flown from Dessau, Germany.

• 17 - Emme, Eugene M, Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space 1915-1960, NASA, 1961. HTML when accessed: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/timeline.html