Irene Bredt
Encyclopedia
Irene Bredt was a German engineer, mathematician and physicist. She is co-credited with the design of a proposed intercontinental spaceplane/bomber prior to and during World War II
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Bredt began her research work as an assistant of Eugen Sänger at this rocket research centre. Her field of activities became thermodynamic and gas kinetics problems related to liquid-propelled rockets. She became the head of the Physics Department there in 1941 and the following year became a First Assistant at the German Research Institute for Gliding Flight at Ainring. Her task was the maintenance and analysis of ramjet test flights.
In 1945, Irene Bredt moved to Paris and worked there as a researcher in the same area as before but now for the Arsénal de l’Aéronautique, later known as SNECMA. At the same time she acted as consultant to MATRA in Paris Billancourt as well as the Institute of Technology in Madras, South India. In 1954, after her marriage to Eugen Sänger and the birth of their son, Irene Sänger-Bredt returned to Germany. She became deputy scientific director of the Research Institute for the Physics of Jet Propulsion, which had been founded by Eugen Sänger in Stuttgart.
In 1960 Irene Sänger-Bredt, who never spoke about emancipation, became one of the founder members — the only woman — of the International Astronautical Academy.
From 1963, she acted as a consultant engineer on space matters for the companies Junkers and Bölkow (later Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH). Irene Sänger-Bredt died in 1983 in Stuttgart, Germany, by which time she had published 88 papers on topics relating to natural science and the science of culture.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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Life and career
Irene Reinhild Agnes Elisabeth Bredt was born on 24 April 1911 in Bonn, Germany. She received her doctorate (in natural science) in 1936. Her thesis was entitled ‘X-rays from Rare Earths’. For her first job she was attracted by a tender with few details of the little known Research Center for Aviation at Trauen, Germany.Bredt began her research work as an assistant of Eugen Sänger at this rocket research centre. Her field of activities became thermodynamic and gas kinetics problems related to liquid-propelled rockets. She became the head of the Physics Department there in 1941 and the following year became a First Assistant at the German Research Institute for Gliding Flight at Ainring. Her task was the maintenance and analysis of ramjet test flights.
In 1945, Irene Bredt moved to Paris and worked there as a researcher in the same area as before but now for the Arsénal de l’Aéronautique, later known as SNECMA. At the same time she acted as consultant to MATRA in Paris Billancourt as well as the Institute of Technology in Madras, South India. In 1954, after her marriage to Eugen Sänger and the birth of their son, Irene Sänger-Bredt returned to Germany. She became deputy scientific director of the Research Institute for the Physics of Jet Propulsion, which had been founded by Eugen Sänger in Stuttgart.
In 1960 Irene Sänger-Bredt, who never spoke about emancipation, became one of the founder members — the only woman — of the International Astronautical Academy.
From 1963, she acted as a consultant engineer on space matters for the companies Junkers and Bölkow (later Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH). Irene Sänger-Bredt died in 1983 in Stuttgart, Germany, by which time she had published 88 papers on topics relating to natural science and the science of culture.