High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Hellmuth Walter (26 August 1900 in Wedel near Hamburg – 16 December 1980 in Upper Montclair, New Jersey) was a German engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines. His most noteworthy contributions were rocket motors for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and Bachem Ba 349 interceptor aircraft, JATO units used for a variety of Luftwaffe aircraft during World War II, and a revolutionary new propulsion system for submarines known as air-independent propulsion (AIP).