On 16 January 1986, after more than six months, 300 take-offs and landings and 600 flying hours, Michael Schultz and Hans Kampik have almost made their way back to the small airfield in Donaueschingen. The list of what they have endured in their Mooney 231 is jaw-dropping: icy storms over Alaska, tropical weather in New Guinea, overzealous narcotics officers in Ecuador, extremely jittery military personnel in the air space above Angola. And now a blizzard is raging over the runway. Yet the small aircraft manages the last stage of its circumnavigation of the world – a triumph for man and machine. The 3.2-litre Porsche PFM 3200 aircraft engine has used 23,000 litres of premium fuel and 30 litres of oil, defied heat and cold and negotiated 100,000 kilometres in the air without complaint.
The PFM 3200 was by no means the first aircraft engine from Porsche. The history of Porsche aviation begins in the year 1908. As technical director of the Austrian Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Wiener Neustadt, Ferdinand Porsche’s task is to take on the engineering design of a four-cylinder airship engine for the Austrian military gas balloon of Major von Parseval. When the dirigible takes off for its maiden voyage on 26 November 1909, and the four-cylinder engine sets the balloon’s air propellers rotating for the first time, Ferdinand Porsche is hovering in the gondola above Wiener Neustadt – and is able to assure himself of the serviceability of his design at first hand.
Early aircraft engines One year later, Ferdinand Porsche is performing as a racing driver. In what is known as the Prinz Heinrich car, he wins the race for touring cars over a distance of just under 2,000 kilometres. The 80-hp, four-cylinder engine – designed of course by the driver himself – powers the car to a sensational top speed of 160 km/h. It soon becomes apparent to Porsche that the engine has the potential for a third dimension – and he continues developing the four-cylinder engine to create a version for the monoplane conceived by the Austrian aviation pioneer Igo Etrich. In the following years, Austro-Daimler under the management of Porsche designs numerous aircraft engines: engines with four, six or twelve cylinders and up to 400 hp, which are deployed in aircraft such as the designed for racing, flying boats and Ludwig Lohner’s Arrow-flier
In 1935, four years after founding his own engineering design office in the centre of Stuttgart, Ferdinand Porsche once again directs his energies towards aviation. The Type 55 aircraft engine produces an impressive 1,000 hp. It is followed by the Types 70 and 72, with 16 and 32 cylinders. In 1937, the office receives an order that impressively demonstrates the close symbiosis between automotive and aviation engineering: Porsche is entrusted with the task of designing the Mercedes-Benz T 80, a racing car intended to set the world land speed record. Its drive system is the Daimler-Benz-DB-603 bomber engine. Displacing just under 45 litres, the engine unleashes a colossal 3,500 hp – ultimately the vehicle is aimed at breaking the 600 km/h barrier between Dessau and Halle. In 1939, the monster takes up its position on the test stand for the first time. However, the outbreak of war thwarts the planned record attempt.
Flying with the flat engine
In 1955 – Ferdinand Porsche’s son Ferry is now running the company – permission is given for aircraft production to extend from gliders to include powered flight. Porsche recognises the potential in the field of sports aircraft and already has a suitable motor available as the basis for further developments in Zuffenhausen: the Porsche 356 is achieving magnificent sales – and is equipped with a powerful and efficient four-cylinder flat engine, also known as a boxer-four. Soon afterwards, Porsche presents the first post-war aircraft engine on this basis, with the Type 678 ranging from 65 to 75 hp. It is used in aircraft such as the Rheinflug RW-3, the first German small aircraft to go into production after the Second World War, or in the Elster, which the Bonn-based engineer Alfons Pützer designed on behalf of the newly founded German Federal Armed Forces.