Kaiser Prize for aircraft engines

The Emperor's Prize for the best German aircraft engine was in 1912 by Kaiser Wilhelm II. With a prize money of 50,000 Mark tendered competitive German engine manufacturer . Various authorities of the German Reich and the Prussian State topped up the prize money to a total of 125,000 marks. The winner was the four-cylinder Benz FX engine from Benz & Cie., Rheinische Automobil- und Motorenfabrik AG , Mannheim .

history

Soon after the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903, the military leaderships of the larger powers, including the German Reich, began to be interested in the military use of the aircraft . In Germany, the "Provisional Military Aviation School Döberitz" was set up on May 1, 1910, and the first attempts at flight were made. In 1911 the Military Aviation and Motor Vehicle Inspection (ILuK) was formed under Major General Wilhelm Messing , who was responsible for the Air Force and Airship Force , and in 1912 the Royal Prussian Air Force was established within the Prussian Army .

Since France had already started building an air force in 1909 (the newly created Aéronautique Militaire was formally incorporated into the armed forces in 1912) and at the same time initiated targeted promotion of the engine industry, the German Reich was technologically behind in terms of aircraft engines . It was hoped to catch up with this by announcing relevant competitions.

On January 27, 1912, his birthday, Kaiser Wilhelm II issued a decree according to which a sum of 50,000 marks was to be paid to the manufacturer (s) of the aircraft engine (s) on his next birthday, which, in a test to be carried out, emerged as the best German aircraft engine. The initiative for this came from the Emperor's brother Heinrich . The emperor provided the sum for the winner's prize from his private box. Various imperial and Prussian authorities contributed additional funds so that prize money could also be awarded for places 2 to 5 (30,000, 20,000, 15,000 and 10,000 marks). In April 1912, the invitation to tender for the Kaiserpreis competition for the best German aircraft engine was published. The Reich Office of the Interior formed a competition committee and an independent jury made up of seven experts (six university professors and a department head from the Reichsmarineamt ), and on May 7 the detailed competition regulations and the amount of the prize money were published.

A new, independent institution was set up to test the engines. "Verein Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt eV " founded in Berlin-Adlershof on April 1912 . V. “(DVL) under the provisional presidency of Colonel Hugo Schmiedecke . In October 1912, the former colonel, who had retired from active military service and was promoted to lieutenant general in the First World War , Hermann Rieß von Scheurnschloß became president of the DVL.

The prize money awarded and the prospect of possible lucrative government contracts generated great interest. Registrations for the competition were received from the beginning of July. A total of 44 engines were registered out of 26 applicants, including 30 water-cooled stationary engines and 14 rotary engines, three were two-stroke engines and one was one-stroke engine. Most of the companies had also registered replacement engines (a total of 24) that could be used if the respective first model was damaged through no fault of its own. Three applicants, each with one engine, were subsequently eliminated due to non-compliance with the conditions of the competition. Of the 65 engines admitted to the competition, only 26 first and 17 replacement engines from 14 applicants were delivered between October 25 and November 10. The examinations by the DVL took place from October 1912.

Consumption, power to weight ratio , easy start-up, operational reliability and simple maintenance were evaluated . The tests were carried out in the following way:

1. Preliminary test in which the engine had to run for 15 minutes at full power and five minutes at reduced speed. The general operational safety was determined and attention was paid to the speed of commissioning;
2. Incline test in which the motor was mounted on a tilting device. First the engine was started in a horizontal position and was then raised to an incline of + 10 ° and had to run at full power for 15 minutes; Then the engine was quickly lowered down to 15 ° and had to run in this position for five minutes at full speed and then for ten minutes at reduced speed and finally again in a horizontal position for five minutes at full speed, with the transition from slower to full speed The speed was repeated twice and it was ensured that the engine immediately went to full power. All engines passed these tests.
3. Main test in which the engine had to work at full power for seven hours without interruption. Interventions or tutoring were not permitted. It was only allowed to control the ignition, gasification, oil and gasoline supply at will from a control station 1.5 meters away, provided that the applicants had attached devices to the engine. According to the competition regulations, the test had to be stopped as soon as the speed dropped below 85% of the initial speed for more than a minute. The interrupted attempt could only be started again once if the fault was caused by the engine or the applicant.
4. Follow-up tests: Of the 17 engines that had passed the aforementioned tests at the beginning of January 1913, in addition to the five lightest engines, five other engines were subjected to continuous endurance tests. The follow-up tests consisted of two three-hour endurance runs. In the last two hours, the conditions were made even more difficult by increasing the risk of one-sided cooling of the cylinders through increased ventilation for one hour. The cooling water inflow temperature was then increased to 90-95 ° C. for half an hour. In the last half hour, the speed was finally increased by 100-150 revolutions per minute compared to that of the main test, by the propeller of the motor by another propeller, driven by a 150 hp electric motor directly in front of it, a gradually increasing airflow was blown until the desired increase was achieved.

Table with the most important water-cooled competition engines

company	No.	Main dimensions: cylinder			Experimental values						Dead weight with cooler without container kg	Unit weight		comment
												without	With
					rotary speed ${\displaystyle n}$	Average working pressure kg / cm³	Net power PS	Fuel consumption				Supplies and containers
		number	Bore mm	Stroke mm				Petrol kg / hp-hour	Oil kg / hp-hour	Total kg / hp-hour		kg / hp	for 7 hours kg / hp
Benz	11	4th	130	180	1288	7.52	102.7	0.211	0.019	0.230	192.77	1.88	3.81	1st Prize
Daimler	20g	6th	105	140	1387	8.04	090.1	0.228	0.017	0.245	176.06	1.96	4.06	2nd prize
	20b	4th	120	140	1412	7.28	072.3	0.226	0.021	0.247	159.11	2.20	4.28	4th prize
	20d	4th	140	150	1373	7.17	100.6	0.221	0.018	0.239	221.20	2.20	4.24
	20a	4th	120	140	1343	7.56	071.4	0.2255	0.014	0.2395	171.08	2.40	4.42
	20e	6th	120	140	1315	7.53	104.5	0.236	0.014	0.250	244.64	2.34	4.48
	20f	4th	110	140	1396	7.37	060.8	0.224	0.013	0.237	150.14	2.47	4.50
	20c	4th	120	140	1391	6.89	067.4	0.223	0.027	0.250	172.36	2.56	4.65
NAG	22b	4th	135	160	1344	7.10	097.0	0.217	0.017	0.234	214.83	2.22	4.22	3rd prize
	22c	4th	120	120	1408	6.67	056.6	0.232	0.004	0.236	125.75	2.23	4.27
Argus	14b	4th	140	140	1368	7.49	098.0	0.239	0.040	0.279	193.14	1.97	4.31	5th prize
	14a	4th	125	130	1342	7.56	072.0	0.263	0.037	0.300	160.80	2.24	4.75
	14d	6th	125	130	1370	7.11	103.5	0.262	0.030	0.292	242.98	2.34	4.80
Mulag	13	6th	110	170	1346	7.12	103.0	0.236	0.0095	0.2455	265.84	2.58	4.65
Schröter	21st	6th	124	160	1252	5.57	090.0	0.278	0.021	0.299	212.14	2.36	4.86

winner

Benz & Cie., Rheinische Automobil- und Motorenfabrik AG from Mannheim won the competition with their water-cooled 9.5-liter 77 kW (105 PS) four-cylinder Benz FX engine developed by engineer Arthur Berger , the first from Benz & Cie. developed engine for aircraft. The 50,000 gold marks went to the Technical University of Karlsruhe. Second place, the Reich Chancellor Prize, went to the Mercedes DF 80 from Daimler , a 67 kW (91 hp) 7.2 liter six-cylinder. In third place followed a four-cylinder with 97 hp from the Neue Automobil-Gesellschaft (NAG). The fourth again went to Daimler with the 9.2-liter, 72-hp four-cylinder G-4F. The two Daimler engines were used in their racing cars in 1913. The Argus Motoren finally won the fifth prize with a 98-horsepower four-cylinder. All five engines placed were water-cooled.

The basic design features of the winning Benz FX engine were retained in the following models of the company, in particular the six-cylinder Benz Bz I (100 hp), Benz Bz II (110 hp) and Benz Bz III (150 hp), some of which were available in thousands Machines of the air force of the German army were used.

With the second-placed Daimler aircraft engine (DF 80), Lieutenant Ernst Canter set a world record for distance and endurance flight with a passenger on March 31, 1913 with a Rumpler pigeon by traveling 599 kilometers from Jüterbog in 6 hours and 9 minutes flew to Lübeck.

Imperial Prize for Aircraft Engines 1914

Because of the constantly increasing demands on aircraft engines, a second Kaiser Prize for more powerful engines was announced as early as 1913, which was to be awarded in September 1914. Fifteen companies submitted reports for a total of 35 engines from 125–200 hp, including Argus, Benz, Daimler, Goebel, Oberursel, Schwade and Siemens. Because of the beginning of the First World War, it was no longer held.

See also

• National flight donation

literature

• Friedrich Bendemann : First report of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : The test facility for the competition for the Kaiser Prize for the best German aircraft engine . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Booklet 22. R. Oldenbourg, 1912, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 281-290 .
• Friedrich Bendemann: Reports of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : II. The implementation and the result of the competition for the Kaiserpreis for the best German aircraft engine . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Book 6. R. Oldenbourg, 1913, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 61-69 .
• Friedrich Bendemann, Eduard Seppeler: Reports of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : II. The implementation and the result of the competition for the Kaiserpreis for the best German aircraft engine . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Booklet 8. R. Oldenbourg, 1913, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 96-103 (The co-author Eduard Seppeler was department head of the Aviation Research Institute in Berlin-Adlersdorf.).
• Friedrich Bendemann, Eduard Seppeler: Reports of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : II. The implementation and the result of the competition for the Kaiserpreis for the best German aircraft engine . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Booklet 9. R. Oldenbourg, 1913, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 113-116 .
• Friedrich Bendemann, Eduard Seppeler: Reports of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : II. The implementation and the result of the competition for the Kaiserpreis for the best German aircraft engine . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Issue 10. R. Oldenbourg, 1913, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 132-137 .
• Friedrich Bendemann, Eduard Seppeler: Reports of the German Research Institute for Aviation. : III. The progress and experiences from the engine competition . In: Ansbert Vorreiter (Hrsg.): Journal for flight technology and motorized airship travel . Organ of the Scientific Society for Aviation Technology. Issue 17. R. Oldenbourg, 1913, ISSN  0935-3437 , p. 229-237 .
• Werner Schwipps: Heavier than air. The early days of flight technology in Germany . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1984, ISBN 3-7637-5280-3 .
• Karl-Dieter Seifert: With collective dime to German air power . The national flight donation 1912–1914. Nora, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86557-351-3 .

Web links

• The winning aircraft engines of the Kaiserpreis competition in 1912. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 328, 1913, pp. 132-136.
• Mercedes-Benz: Benz aircraft engine FX.

Footnotes

1. ↑ C. Walther Vogelsang: The aircraft engine and its components. Volckmann's Library for Aviation, 2nd edition, Berlin, 1917, p. 92
2. ↑ Friedrich Bendemann : The test facility for the competition for the Kaiser Prize for the best German aircraft engine. Reprint, Springer-Verlag, Berlin & Heidelberg, December 2013, 8 pages.
3. ^ Christian Pierer: Die Bayerischen Motoren Werke until 1933. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70400-6 , p. 10
4. ^ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: The automobile pioneer Carl Benz and the Karlsruhe Polytechnic
5. ↑ The Mercedes-Benz Chronicle 1911–1920 claims, however, that third place goes to Benz & Cie ( Mercedes-Benz Chronicle 1911–1920 ), as does C. Walther Vogelsang: The aircraft engine and its components. Volckmann's Library for Aviation, 2nd edition, Berlin, 1917, p. 94
6. ↑ Daimler AG: The history of motorsport at Mercedes-Benz ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes 90PS GP racing car engine / s
8. ↑ https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/UAFPBGME5X4VNCJ7W2OJUWM65W6QNFGB