14 Dec 06
Porsche
Recruited from Lohner to be chief technical manager at Austro-Daimler - initially a subsidiary of Daimler in Germany but becoming an independent entity - Ferdinand Porsche developed high-performance and racing cars such as the Sascha, winner of the 1922 Targa Florio, and created a series of aero engines. His first, an aircooled unit designed in 1911, had its four cylinders arranged in a cross-formation very close to a flat-four layout; later Austro-Daimler aero engines Porsche produced during World War I had V and W formations, and he also designed a rotary unit and a straight six. The six-cylinder unit, with outputs of 120bhp, 160bhp or 200bhp, powered planes built by Lohner, Aviatik and Hansa-Brandenburgh for the Austro-Hungarian airforce; small numbers were built under licence in Germany by Rapp (BMW).
It was the four-cylinder aero engine which proved the most influential in the long term, however. Porsche had long been interested in making a low-cost 'people's car'; after transferring to Daimler-Benz post-WWI, he pursued the project but to little avail. He left the firm in 1929, joining Steyr for a while, but eventually set up his own consultancy in 1931. Drawing up plans for a practical, rear-engined runaround, he proposed producing the car in partnership with both Zundapp and NSU, but both firms rejected the idea; Porsche went on to receive a state-sponsored commission from Adolf Hitler to develop the Volkswagen (the Beetle) which, after his death, went on to be one of the world's best sellers. The fundamental principles of the aero engine's design formed the basis of the Beetle's initial 985cc, 25bhp engine, its subsequent successors and the engine in the first Porsche production sports car, the 356 made under the leadership of Ferdinand's son Ferry Porsche post-World War II.
In the late 1950s, things came full circle when the Type 678/4 four-cylinder engine of the 356 and 912, now a 1582cc, 90bhp unit, was tested and certified for aeroplane use, though it was only supplied for a few one-offs. The flat-six 911 turbo engine was later used to power a small number of independently produced 'blimps' (small airships), but Porsche itself did not get involved in the aeronautical industry again until the early 1980s, when it developed from the 911's flat-six an aero engine known as the PFM 3200.
The PFM (Porsche Flug-Motor) was praised for its then class-leading fuel economy, as well as its quietness and simplicity of operation, and it was supplied to Mooney for its M20L, a lightweight four-seat aircraft. A test prototype flew round the world in 1981 to prove its reliability, but the PFM proved unpopular and there were some doubts about its suitability for the aircraft. Mooney switched to Lycoming engines, and Porsche has not since ventured back in the air.
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