From Zeppelins to Fast Ferries, A Century of Engines and Innovation
MTU Turns 100
In 2009 MTU -- the company that started out as Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH -- celebrates its 100th anniversary, a celebration of progress in the realm of diesel engines, propulsion systems and energy plants. From the beginning, cofounder Karl Maybach focused on the same qualities that still are held today: performance and reliability. Today MTU and its new sister brand, MTU Onsite Energy, are the two core brands of the present-day Tognum Group. The expertise for the key technologies of turbo charging, fuel injection, electronics and exhaust treatment is constantly developed and expanded in-house.
The Beginning
If Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin had known in 1908 what momentous consequences the destruction of his LZ 4 airship would have, then perhaps he would not have been quite so devastated. Because when the hydrogen-filled zeppelin had to make an emergency landing in Echterdingen near Stuttgart on August 5, 1908 due to engine problems and was later ripped from its moorings by a storm-force wind and dumped in an orchard where it was consumed by flames, the apparent disaster was actually the beginning of a 100 year success story in engine production. Wilhelm Maybach, who knew Count Zeppelin from his time as chief designer at the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, saw that airships needed more reliable and more powerful engines that were more suited to continuous duty. So when a massive wave of public donations secured the future of zeppelin production, he recommended an engine designed by his son Karl to Count Zeppelin. The Count recognized the opportunity and joined up with Maybach senior and junior to establish
Wilhelm Maybach (1846 - 1929) is Technical Director of the DaimlerMotoren-Gesellschaft until 1907 and was instrumental in the design of the first modern automobile. In 1908, he takes the initiative to set up MTU's predecessor company named Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau (founded in 1909).
the airship engine company Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH in the town of Bissingen on March 23, 1909, from where it subsequently moved to Friedrichshafen near the Zeppelin factory in 1912.
Engines for aircraft
Karl Maybach's engine was designed for endurance, built to be very rigid, was lighter and, because of a new type of carburetor without a float, was better suited to operating at the inclined angles that are encountered in an airship. A straight-six spark-ignition unit, it pro-
duced 145 hp (107 kW) and had an good power-to-weight ratio for the time of 0.42 hp per kilogram. The first zeppelin to be exclusively powered by Maybach engines was the LZ 10, named the Schwaben. By the end of the 1920s, all Zeppelin airships used Maybach engines. Maybach power units also delivered top performance at high altitude for military airplanes, which over the course of the First World War were increasingly preferred to the easily targeted airships. Planes made by Gotha, Dornier, Rumpler and others were powered by
the 250 hp (184 kW) supercharged Maybach Mb IVa aircraft engine which could maintain its output at higher altitudes than others. While the company started with airships and developed through road and rail engines, the MD Series -- originally created for railway use and specified for use in fast railcars and legendary locomotives such as the German V 100 and V 200, offered a high power density which made it attractive as a marine propulsion unit for fast naval and governmental vessels. Despite those successes, Jean Raebel, Chairman of the Board at the time, recognized at the beginning of the 1950s that the company needed a partner to remain successful in the long term. The industrial magnate Friedrich Flick bought the shares owned by the Zeppelin foundation and airship company. And as Flick was also a shareholder in Daimler-Benz AG, he brought Maybach and the Daimler-Benz large engines operations together. So the company's history in the 1960s was dominated by that merger. Daimler had by then moved its large engine production from Stuttgart to a site it had acquired in the Manzell district of Friedrichshafen. The next step followed in 1969. Maybach, Daimler-Benz and MAN merged their large engine and aircraft turbine operations. That fusion created the Motoren- und Turbinen-Union and thus gave birth to the name MTU. The MTU plant in Friedrichshafen was allocated the diesel engines business while the Munich factory was given the aircraft turbines. The plan was to standardize the three companies' diesel engine ranges and extend the top-end output to 10,000 hp. The models with which that was essentially achieved were the Series 331/396, 538 and 956/1163.
Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
64