Ludwig Hautzmayer was an Austro-Hungarian military officer and World War I flying ace credited with seven aerial victories. He commanded Fliegerkompanie 61J during the final year of the war and later became a civil airline pilot under the name Lajos Tatai, dying in the 1936 Croydon air disaster.
Background
Ludwig Hautzmayer was born on April 25, 1893, in Fürstenfeld, in the Austrian lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at a secondary school in Graz and later pursued mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Graz. His early interests included motorcycle racing, mountaineering, swimming, and other physically demanding activities.
When World War I began in 1914, Hautzmayer held a reserve officer's commission and was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian 7th Infantry Regiment. He served on the Eastern Front until suffering a serious leg wound on September 8, 1914. After recovering, he volunteered for service in the Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops.
Education
Hautzmayer received his secondary education at a Realgymnasium in Graz before studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Graz. The Graz institution, founded in the nineteenth-century expansion of technical education in the Austrian lands, trained engineers for the industrial and technological needs of the late Austro-Hungarian period.
His military aviation education began at Aspern near Vienna, where he trained as an aerial observer and technical officer. He entered fighter-pilot training in November 1915 and completed it by February 1916, moving from reconnaissance and technical duties into aerial combat.
Career
Hautzmayer began his military career as a reserve officer with the 7th Infantry Regiment and fought on the Russian Front in 1914. After recovering from his leg wound, he transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops and trained at Aspern as an aerial observer and technical officer. In March 1915 he joined Fliegerkompanie 15, operating on the Eastern Front and later in the Serbian campaign. He flew approximately forty combat missions as an observer and participated in artillery-coordination and reconnaissance operations.
In February 1916, Hautzmayer joined Fliegerkompanie 19 as a fighter pilot on the Isonzo Front. Flying Fokker Eindecker, Hansa-Brandenburg C.I., and Albatros D.III aircraft, he achieved four victories between February 1916 and August 1917. Fliegerkompanie 19 was a general-service unit that combined reconnaissance aircraft with fighters during the development of Austro-Hungarian aerial warfare over the Italian Front.
Hautzmayer transferred to Fliegerkompanie 51J in February 1918 and scored a fifth victory on March 13, 1918. On March 20 he became commander of Fliegerkompanie 61J, one of the relatively few reserve officers to receive command of an Austro-Hungarian fighter unit. He added victories on October 7 and October 27, 1918, ending the war with seven credited aerial victories.
After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Hautzmayer married a Hungarian woman, became a Hungarian citizen, and adopted the name Lajos Tatai. He worked as a civil airline pilot for the Hungarian company Malert and later flew for KLM. On December 9, 1936, he was killed while piloting a KLM Douglas DC-2 that crashed shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport in dense fog.
Personality
A wartime evaluation described Hautzmayer as exceptionally energetic, courageous, self-confident, cheerful, and willing to accept danger. The assessment also characterized him as a reliable aircraft companion and well-liked comrade.
Connections
After World War I, Hautzmayer married a Hungarian woman and adopted the Hungarian name Lajos Tatai after acquiring Hungarian citizenship. He was buried in Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna after his death in the Croydon air disaster.
