Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg | |
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![]() Kruckenberg (2nd from the left) in front of the Schienenzeppelin | |
Born | |
Died | 19 June 1965 | (aged 82)
Nationality | German |
Education | ship building |
Occupation | Engineer |
Engineering career | |
Discipline | aerodynamics |
Significant design | Schienenzeppelin |
Significant advance | high speed trains |
Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg (born on the 21st of August 1882 in Uetersen, Germany; died on the 19th of June 1965 in Heidelberg) was an engineer and pioneer of high speed railway systems. He designed several high speed trains. His most famous design was the Schienenzeppelin.
Kruckenberg was born into an old-established Hamburg merchant family. From 1904 to 1907 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in Berlin, graduating in naval engineering. Before World War I he designed aircraft and airships. Even then he already criticised airships because of their explosive hydrogen filling; and the civil use of aircraft because of their high fuel- and maintenance costs.