Friedrich Karl von Koenig-Warthausen

Friedrich Karl Richard Paul August Freiherr Koenig von und zu Warthausen (2 April 1906 – 15 December 1986) was a German aviator who made the first solo flight around the world in 1928–1929. His flight took him eastwards from Berlin to Moscow, then to the Persian Gulf, across northern India and to Siam. He travelled mostly by ship to China and Japan, then across the Pacific Ocean. After flying across the United States, he again took a ship back to Europe, ending his flight in Hanover after 15 months. For this feat he was awarded the Hindenburg Cup.

Early life and education

The eldest son of Friedrich Karl Wilhelm Freiherr Koenig von und zu Warthausen (1863–1948), and his wife Elisabeth Hedwig Marie Anna von Wiedebach und Nostiz-Jänkendorf (1878–1961), he was born at the family home of Schloss Warthausen, close to the town of Biberach an der Riss in Baden-Württemberg. He attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium boarding school in Munich, and in February 1924 graduated from the high school in Kempten, Allgäu, before studying law and economics at universities in Munich, Königsberg, Berlin, and England, while also pursuing his enthusiasm for sailing and flying, This aircraft, registration number D-1433, which he named Kamerad, was a two-seater low-wing monoplane with an empty weight of only , delivering only This aircraft, with its high aspect ratio and very low wing loading, would today be classified as an ultralight. Warthausen considered von Hünefeld his greatest inspiration. He also engaged in efforts to locate the then-missing Joseph Le Brix who had gone down on the coast of Burma near Moulmein in an attempt to break a speed record.