Ludwig Boelkow, 91; Flight Engineer Helped Develop Airbus Jets

Ludwig Boelkow, 91, a flight engineer who helped develop the European-made Airbus jet planes, died Friday in Munich of a suspected heart attack.

“Ludwig Boelkow shaped the airline industry in postwar Germany like no one else,” Rainer Hetrich and Philippe Camus, co-chairmen of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., said in a statement. “More than anything, Ludwig Boelkow is one of the fathers of Airbus.” The company owns 80% of Airbus Industrie.

Born in Schwerin, Germany, Boelkow began working for Messerschmitt in 1939 and helped develop the first jet fighter, the Me-262, which was used by the Nazis during World War II. In 1958, he founded Boelkow GmbH, which later became part of the Munich-based air and defense company Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm, now part of EADS.

In 1966, Boelkow founded a German Airbus Studio that he took with him to the Paris Airshow at Le Bourget.

That demonstration first suggested that a Franco-German or even a European consortium could build an airliner to rival U.S.-made jets.