Walther Johannes Riedel

Walther Johannes Riedel (1903 to 1974) was a German rocket engineer who worked on the V-2 and Wasserfall rockets. He graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Berlin in 1929 and from 1936 to 1946 directed development of liquid-fueled rockets at Peenemunde; in 1942 he was chief of design on the V-2. After the Second World War he was among the German rocket scientists brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip, was questioned at Fort Bliss, Texas, and then worked for North American Aviation, which sought to recreate and improve on the V-2, at its plant in Downey, California. In 1949 he predicted that space ships would exist within 25 years. He also took an interest in unidentified flying objects, and judged George Adamski's flying saucer photographs to be faked. He returned to West Germany and died in Hamburg in 1974.