Erich Karl Warsitz was a German test pilot of the 1930s. He held the rank of Flight-Captain in the Luftwaffe and was selected by the Reich Air Ministry as chief test pilot at Peenemünde West. He is remembered as the first person to fly an aircraft under liquid-fueled rocket power, the Heinkel He 176, on June 20, 1939 and also the first to fly an aircraft under turbojet power, the Heinkel He 178, on August 27 the same year.
Erich Warsitz
A He 111E in Luftwaffe service, 1940, without rocket boosters
A regular He 112.
The Me 163 A V4 prototype, 1941.
The Heinkel He 176 was a German experimental rocket-powered aircraft. It was the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fueled rocket, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls.
Heinkel He 176
Opel RAK.1, world's first public flight of a rocket-powered aircraft on September 30, 1929, piloted by Fritz von Opel