"Hans Grade (May 17, 1879 – October 22, 1946) was a German aviation pioneer.
Hans Grade was born in Köslin, Pomerania. On 28 October 1908 he successfully conducted the first motor-flight over German soil in a motorised triplane aircraft of his own construction at Magdeburg.
A year later, on 30 October 1909, flying a new monoplane design he won the 40.000 Reichsmark "Lanz-Preis der Lufte", for the first German to fly a flat "8" in a German aircraft with German engine around two pylons 1000 meters apart.
In 1910 he established the first aviation school in Germany.
A Grade monoplane carried Germany's first air mail, when pilot Pentz made a flight from Bork to Bruck in February 1912 with a small sack of mail in his lap. Although successful, Grade monoplanes did not become as famous as many contemporary European designs, and for this reason comparatively few were built. " - (en.wikipedia.org 15.02.2022)
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