Hanna Reitsch (born March 29, 1912, in Hirschberg/Silesia, died August 24, 1979, in Frankfurt/Main) was the most successful female aviator of the 20th century, holding over 40 world records in various categories and with a wide range of aircraft types. In the first part of her memoirs, which conclude with the end of the war and her American internment, she describes her training as a pilot, her subsequent work as a flight instructor at a gliding school, her participation in research expeditions to South America, numerous flight world records, and her role as a test pilot for military aircraft. Since 1937, she worked at the Luftwaffe's flight test center in Rechlin, where she became the first woman in the world to fly a helicopter (Focke-Wulf Fw 61), a rocket plane (Messerschmitt Me 163), and the manned V-1. Hanna Reitsch received a severe injury.