Inspired by his gliding brother Edgar, Heini Dittmar made an apprenticeship at the German Research Institute for gliding after leaving school. At the age of 18, he passed his A and B gliding test in 1929. In 1932, at the age of 21, he won the first victory of his class in the Rhön gliding competition with a self-made glider (Condor). Then he became involved as a research pilot.
After success with long-distance gliding, Dittmar became a member of the German gliding expedition to Argentina together with Hanna Reitsch and Wolf Hirth in 1934, where he set new world height records for gliders (February 16, 1934 over 4350 m). In 1934, Dittmar set another long-distance world record with Fafnir II and was awarded the Hindenburg Cup. In 1936, he made the first crossing of the Alps in a glider. Heini Dittmar crowned his career as a glider pilot with victory in the first international Rhön competition in 1937, which was later recognized as the first world championship in gliding. In addition, he was awarded the Golden Mark in Slide No. 1.
With the rocket aircraft Me 163 A-V4 KE + SW, Heini Dittmar reached 1003.67 km / h for the first time in a test flight on October 2, 1941 and was the first person to exceed the 1000 km / h mark in an aircraft. On July 6, 1944, Heini Dittmar reached a speed of 1130 km / h with Me 163 B V18 Komet VA + SP.
During and after World War II, Heini Dittmar worked as an aircraft designer and test pilot, but remained largely apolitical in the spirit of National Socialism. The National Socialists also used the enthusiasm for gliding that arose after the First World War to train young pilots and not least for the air force that was established. Heini Dittmar, who despite all modesty was also very popular abroad, represented the best possible advertisement for gliding through his appearance and success, which was carried out with books about Dittmar’s sporting achievements that were suitable for young people until the war.
A designer of high-performance sailplanes, Heine Dittmar produced a motorized version of his Segelmowein in 1953-1954 as the HD 153 Mowe two-seat light aircraft. Wing and tail detached for road transport. A small number of these aircraft, and of the later HD 156 three-seat aircraft, was built.
He died in 1960 when he crashed on a test flight with his own design HD-153 Motor-Möwe near Essen-Mülheim airfield. The machine, which was originally designed as a glider under the name HD 53 Möwe (later HD 153A-1 or HD 156A-1), had its first flight in 1953, but the type certification lasted until 1957. In the end, only eight or nine HD 153 and seven were built. HD 156 (more luxurious version of HD 153) of the machines equipped with a 71 kW Continental C-90 engine.
In his hometown, Mülheim an der Ruhr, as well as in Augsburg and Schweinfurt, the streets bear his name (Heini-Dittmar-Straße), as well as in Kiel-Holtenau (Dittmarweg).
