König Motorenbau
By the Berlin company King engine produced outboard motors were in the second half of the 20th century, the world's most successful racing engines in the classes to 700 cc of motor boating . In addition, outboard motors for the leisure sector and, most recently, motors for ultralight aircraft were manufactured.
history
Rudolf König founded the company in 1927 in Berlin SO 36 (Kreuzberg). The first product was a side board engine with around 1 hp (0.74 kW ). After the Second World War , he rebuilt the company with his son Dieter . König moved from Kreuzberg to Charlottenburg, first to Einsteinufer, then on Thater's private road and until it was closed on May 31, 1998 on Friedrich-Olbricht-Damm. At times there was a branch in Hitdorf near Cologne for sales and maintenance . The company did not go bankrupt, but closed down.
Dieter König died of the consequences of his serious injuries on August 17, 1991, the day after he crashed in a microlight during a test flight near Saarmund in the hospital. There is a memorial stone for Dieter König on the grounds of the Motor-Rennboot-Club (MRC) in Berlin-Steglitz.
Outboard motors
After the first side board engine, Rudolf König designed his first rear engine in 1932, followed in 1937 by a three - cylinder radial engine with 500 cm³, which was also used for motorboat races. Before the war, the engine program included three side-board engines with outputs between 1.25 and 2.5 hp and rear engines between 6 and 18 hp. In 1977, the anniversary year, the program included the following two-stroke engines :
- 4 HP side engine
- 4 hp, 1 cylinder, 60 cc. This engine was from the Yugoslav company Tomos produced and branded King sold
- 10 and 18 hp, both 2 cylinders, 250 cc. These were also produced by Tomos and King sold
- 30 and 40 hp, both 2 cylinders, 603 cc
- 60 hp, 3 cylinders, 905 cc
- 70 hp, 3 cylinders, 905 cc. This engine is a further development of the 60 hp engine in collaboration with Volvo Penta
The two- and three-cylinder engines designed by König himself were controlled with flat rotary valves that were located directly on the crankshaft between the crank webs.
Racing
Up to 175 cm³
In 1935, Rudolf König presented a new racing engine with 175 cm³ and around 10 hp at 5800 rpm at the water sports exhibition in Berlin. Several world records were set with this engine in the same year. The long-term record of two hours with an average speed of 53.57 km / h , set by Berlin's Bob Blankenfeldt, has never been exceeded to this day.
After the Second World War, this smallest displacement class was very popular in boat racing, especially in the GDR , where its own engines were manufactured. At the 16 European championships held between 1956 and 1972, drivers with König engines were successful five times.
Up to 700 cm³
In 1963 the UIM hosted the first world championship in motorboat racing. Up to and including 1999, a total of 130 world championship titles were awarded in the displacement classes 250 cm³, 350 cm³, 500 cm³ and 700 cm³, 115 of them to drivers with König engines.
In 1947 the first European championship after the war was held. Up to and including 1999, a total of 176 European championship titles were awarded in the displacement classes 250 cm³, 350 cm³, 500 cm³ and 700 cm³, 138 of them to drivers with König engines.
In-line engines (up to three cylinders) or two-cylinder boxer engines , but mostly four- cylinder boxer engines , were used in racing . All four-cylinder engines used the same crankshaft. The displacement range from 250 to 700 cm³ resulted from different bores. Further design features of the four-cylinder boxer engines:
In the 1990s, König partially converted the inlet control to flutter valves .
There were further successes in classes with series engines and gasoline-powered racing engines ("stock engines").
Motorcycling
At the suggestion of the New Zealand racing driver Kim Newcombe , Dieter König developed similar four-cylinder two-stroke boxer engines ("double boxers ") for racing motorcycles of the 350 and 500 solo and sidecar classes in the early 1970s, based on the boat engines , which he mainly built into his own chassis built in. In 1973 Newcombe was posthumously runner-up in the 500 cc class behind Phil Read . In 1975 and 1976 the duo Rolf Steinhausen / Josef Huber won the sidecar world championship with a Busch-König team .
Aircraft engines
In the 1990s, the König company offered five different two-stroke engines with three or four cylinders for ultralight aircraft.
König SC430 in a Mitchell Wing B-10 with 3: 1 reduction and Neuform 4-blade propeller
SC430 in a Mitchell Mitchell Wing B-10 direct drive propeller
Individual references and comments
- ^ Helmut Hütten in Schnelle Motoren ( ISBN 3-87943-974-5 ), Motorbuch Verlag (Stuttgart), page 363
- ^ Advertisement in Mann Boot Motor (Berlin), August 1938
- ↑ Dr. Ing. Lüscher in: Die Yacht (Berlin), issue 10/1935, pages 16-17.
- ^ Author unknown in: Die Yacht (Berlin), Issue 10/1935, pages 14–15.
- ↑ List of world champions on the UIM website ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Database query at the Schulze racing boat archive
- ^ Advertisement in a program booklet from the 1991 motorboat race
