War clouds were beginning to gather, but there would be time for at least one more foray into the world of international sports flying in August 1938, when Reitsch visited the United States to make an appearance at the International Air Races at Cincinnati. Friends and family had prepared her to dislike Americans, but she enjoyed the trip immensely, later writing, ‘there was much in the American way of living that seemed to me worthy of imitation.’ She did encounter some anti-German sentiment, but her demonstration of Hans Jacobs’ aerobatic glider, the Habicht (goshawk), in Ohio garnered frenzied applause and invitations to appear elsewhere. At that point, however, she was summarily recalled home by her government.

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In 1939 Reitsch suffered through a three-month bout with scarlet fever, followed by muscular rheumatism. On recovering, she went right back to work, becoming involved in the development of large cargo-, troop- and fuel-carrying gliders. The work was largely abandoned after the 180-foot wingspan Messerschmitt Me-361 Gigant (giant) crashed and killed the pilots of its three Me-110 tow planes, the Gigant’s six-man crew and 110 troops in the glider. She later undertook a very dangerous assignment involving the development of barrage balloon cable shears for German bombers.

In 1942 the operational version of the single-seat rocket-powered bomber interceptor known as the Komet, the Messerschmitt Me-163, was undergoing testing at the research center at Augsburg. Reitsch became determined to fly this bullet-shaped plane, driven by a liquid-fueled Walther rocket engine. By the autumn of 1942, she managed to finagle three flights in the prototype, Me-163A, as well as a flight in the first production model, the Me-163B.

Reitsch’s last flight in the Me-163B nearly ended her life. The Komet’s cockpit proved to be arranged so that someone her size could not easily fly the plane. It was hard to reach the rudder pedals, and she was also forced to dispense with the shoulder harness and lean forward to operate the controls.

The flight proceeded uneventfully until Reitsch moved the control to drop the takeoff undercarriage. The plane immediately began to shudder and became nearly impossible to control. Her hand radio had stopped working, and it was not until she saw one of her tow plane crewmen waving a handkerchief while the pilot raised and lowered its landing gear that she understood that the Me-163’s dolly undercarriage had not fallen away as it was designed to do. Despite her best efforts and those of the tow plane pilot, no maneuver would dislodge the undercarriage.

Reitsch decided to try to land the plane. She nearly succeeded, but at the last instant the aircraft stalled and crashed into a plowed field just short of the runway. She survived the crash but suffered severe injuries. Her nose was nearly sheared off, her skull was fractured in four places, two facial bones were fractured, and her upper and lower jaws were misaligned.

Four days after that accident, in tribute to her skill and bravery in this and other developmental work, Reitsch was awarded a special diamond-encrusted version of the Gold Medal for Military Flying by Reichsmarshall Göring. She was also later awarded the Iron Cross First Class.

After five months in the hospital and much plastic surgery, Reitsch was discharged — though at first she was still plagued with spells of dizziness and spatial disorientation. Without medical permission she began to fly again, starting with gliders and graduating to powered aircraft and strenuous aerobatic maneuvers until she was satisfied that her flying skills were as good as they had ever been. In August 1943, 10 months after her accident, her surgeon gave her medical clearance to return to normal activities.Reitsch followed the Me-163 development group to its site at Peenemünde-West. There, she learned the details of the pulse-jet powered V-1 buzz bomb and the V-2 ballistic missile programs run by General Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun. She survived unscathed the first Allied bombing raid on the complex, which left most of Peenemünde a pile of rubble. Shortly thereafter, when she met with friends in Berlin at a luncheon, the conversation turned to a discussion of what they could do to save Germany from what was now seen as a slide into defeat. The group decided to propose aerial strikes on strategic Allied targets carried out by suicide bomber pilots, a concept dubbed Operation Self Sacrifice.

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