The Oberursel Rotary Engine - 100 Years of Fighter Aircraft
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Geschichtskreis Motorenfabrik Oberursel e. V. Helmut Hujer The Oberursel Rotary Engine - 100 Years of Fighter Aircraft Special print of an article contributed by Helmut Hujer to the JOURNAL of The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, Issue 3 and 4 in 2015 © All rights reserved The author of this article has published in 2017 a comprehensive book about the 125 years of history of the Motorenfabrik Oberursel in German language. Some more information about this book is given on the following page. Zum Autor und dessen Buch „125 Jahre Motorenfabrik Oberursel“ Der Autor des Aufsatzes hat, beginnend mit einer Werkzeugmacher-Lehre 1961 und nach dem anschließenden Maschinenbau-Studium, sein gesamtes Berufsleben in der „Motorenfabrik Ober- ursel“ gearbeitet. Anschließend hat er wesentlich mitgewirkt an der Gründung des „Geschichts- kreis Motorenfabrik Oberursel“ im Jahr 2010, und zugleich hat er sich an die Erforschung der Werksgeschichte gemacht. Das Ergebnis ist sein im Jahr 2017 herausgegebenes Buch „125 Jahre Motorenfabrik Oberursel - 1892 bis 2017“. Dieses Buch, mit 896 reich bebilderten Seiten im Format A4, kann im Vortaunusmuseum in Ober- ursel eingesehen und erworben werden (50 €), im Werksmuseum bei Rolls-Royce Deutschland o- der direkt beim Autor, Kontakt: hujer.helmut@t- online.de, Tel. 06081/3611 und 0170 4375 178. Das Inhaltsverzeichnis sowie das Repertorium, mit Personen-Register und chronologischen Pro- dukte-Wegweiser, können auf den Webseiten www.gkmo.net und www.ursella.info als digitale und per Schlagwort durchsuchbare Dokumente eingesehen und kostenlos ausgedruckt werden. Die Motorenfabrik Oberursel, im Jahr 1892 gegründet und seit dem Jahr 2000 ein Standort der Firma Rolls-Royce Deutschland, gilt als die älteste noch in Betrieb befindliche Flugmotorenfabrik der Welt. Sie geht zurück auf eine sogar noch zehn Jahre früher gegründete Fabrik für Müllereimaschinen, die seinerzeit erste Maschinenbaufabrik in Oberursel. Groß geworden mit den Stationärmotoren „Gnom“, entwickelte sie sich Anfang des 20ten Jahrhunderts zum zweitgrößten Hersteller für Motorlokomotiven in Deutschland. Mit den während des Ersten Weltkriegs gebauten Oberurseler Umlaufmotoren wurden die ersten deutschen Jagdflugzeuge ausgerüstet, die mit dem Fokker-Dreidecker des Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen in Erin- nerung geblieben sind. Zwischen den Weltkriegen wurden dann in Oberursel auch jene Deutzer Motoren in großen Stückzahlen gebaut, die im „Bauernschlepper“ und im „11er Deutz“ die Mechanisierung in der deutschen Landwirtschaft voranbrachten. Daneben arbeitete man ab 1941 an der Entwicklung von Groß- Flugmotoren. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde die Fabrik ein Opfer der Reparationsdemontage und die US-Army nutzte sie elf Jahre lang als Instandsetzungsbetrieb und Kaserne. Anfang der 1960er Jahre zog wieder der Flugmotorenbau mit verschiedenen Lizenzfertigungen und Eigenentwicklungen in der Fabrik ein. Ein kleines Drohnentriebwerk wurde zum ersten nach 1945 in Deutschland entwickelten und in Serie gebauten Strahltriebwerk. Im Jahr 1990 begann mit der Firma BMW Rolls-Royce AeroEngines eine neue Ära. Hier in Oberursel nahm die Entwicklung der BR700 Schubtriebwerke für Regional- und Geschäfts- reiseflugzeuge ihren Anfang, für die auch die wesentlichen Bauteile in Oberursel gefertigt wurden. Nach dem Übergang in die Firma Rolls-Royce Deutschland entwickelte sich das Werk zum Kompetenzzentrum für rotierende Triebwerkbauteile, insbesondere für Verdichtertrommeln, für Verdichterräder in BLISK- Bauweise und für Turbinenscheiben. In der Stadt Oberursel gehört die Motorenfabrik schon von ihrer Gründung an zu den größten Industriebe- trieben und Arbeitgebern, und sie war seitdem und ist auch nach dem Strukturwandel in der zweiten Hälfte des 20ten Jahrhunderts von großer Bedeutung für den Wirtschaftsstandort und für die Menschen in Ober- ursel. ( The Oberursel Rotary Engine - 100 years of fighter aircraft by Helmut Hujer Above: the Oberursel works today The basic catastrophe of the 20th Century his year Rolls-Royce celebrates 25 years in The terrible war of 1914-1918 was the first war in Germany- In 1990 the BMW AG, which came into history in which the front line soldiers were exposed, Texistence in 1916 as an aero-engine manufac• more or less continuously, to the impact of enemy fire turer, bought the Oberursel Motorenfabrik from Kloeck- for days, weeks and even months. The then new weap• ner-Humboldt-Deutz, and, together with Rolls-Royce, ons were cannons firing on them from 10, 20 kilometres set up a new firm BMW Rolls-Royce. Here in Oberursel or more, new and deadly machine guns, awesome development of the core of the new generation turbo- tanks, even terrible poison gas, and not least - military fan-engines BR 700 started. After the establishment aircraft. At the beginning of the war these tiny aircraft of the new headquarters in Dahlewitz, close to Berlin, were used primarily for reconnaissance and for artillery Oberursel was transformed into a modern centre of ex• guidance. But very soon they had adopted additional cellence for the manufacture of rotating engine compo• roles which became the recognisable roles of today, as nents. In 2000 Rolls-Royce took over full ownership and bombers, fighters (initially named fighting scouts) and formed Rolls-Royce Ltd & Co KG, ground support aircraft. A striking feature of the Oberursel works is the almost century old main office building of the former 1915 - The Advent of Fighter Aircraft Motorenfabrik Oberursel AG. This office building, as well as the industrial building behind it, came into being dur• To prevent enemy reconnaissance, the pilots soon ing the First World War to produce rotary aero-engines began shooting at each other with guns and rifles, even for the new generation of fighter aircraft. throwing hand grenades. Then, Roland Garros, a well- 16 ' Right: The Gnome Omega, on display in the Salon de I'aeronautique at the Paris Motor Show in 1908 known French flying pioneer, started to experi• ment with machine guns fixed to his Morane-Saulnier aeroplanes and fired through the propeller. This worked well and made the German pilots more or less defenceless. Thus the Germans were without air reconnaissance during the battle over the Champagne region in spring 1915, which was a big disadvantage for them. To avoid damage the French had protect• ed their propellers with steel deflecting plates. However, on April 18, 1915 Roland Garros was shot down behind enemy lines with such a plane, which was captured largely intact. The Gerrtians tried to imitate the arrangement, but their hard-shell bullets went through the de• flector plates and damaged the propeller. This inspired Anthony Fokker to develop a functional interrupter gear, synchronising the gun to the engine-revolutions. This principle had been patented already some time before the war, but had since then not been made fit for practical use. Fokker managed to accomplish this within ment of the firm. This sturdy and reliable engine became a few days, but it took some time to produce enough of quite successful, and it attracted Louis Seguin, a French the light-weight air-cooled machine guns, as well as the engineer. In 1895 he had set up his first workshop rotary engines required for the new fighter aircraft. in Gennevilliers near Paris to produce and maintain Finally, in early autumn 1915, enough Fokker piston engines. Already in the same year he had taken monoplanes had been produced to break the allied air a licence from Willy Seek to manufacture and sell this superiority and soon the allied pilots spoke of the 'Fok• engine in France. He named it GNOME, adopting the ker scourge'. This marked the advent of fighter planes in French spelling. In June 1905, Louis Seguin founded the German forces, and all these first generation Fokker the new 'Societe des Moteurs Gnome', in Gennevilliers. fighter planes were powered by rotary engines pro• He employed his younger brother Laurent, an engineer, duced in the Motorenfabrik Oberursel. In 1914 the Mo• who apparently took up the rotary principle and start• torenfabrik Oberursel was one of only five aero-engine ed design of such engines. This was in 1907, when all manufacturers for the German military, alongside Daim• France had become euphoric about flying machines. ler in Untertuerkheim near Stuttgart, Benz in Mannheim, The soaring Societe des Moteurs Gnome, which Argus in Reinickendorf near Berlin, and Motorenbau had grown out of the 1895 workshop and the licensed Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance. fabrication of the Oberursel GNOM, became the pre• cursor to the Snecma aero-engine-company formed The Motorenfabrik Oberursel in 1945. So some roots of Snecma reach back to the Motorenfabrik Oberursel, The rise and fall of the Motorenfabrik AG is strongly linked to the course of the Great War. The Motorenfabrik The Fascination of Flying Oberursel was originally founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Seek. Being a millwright he had built up the factory The success of Seguin's engines was based upon the ten years previously to produce roller-mills for grinding impressive power to weight ratio inherent to the rotary corn. It was Seck's son Willy, who invented a stationary engine principle. With a cylinder 'star' rotating around a piston engine named GNOM, which led to the establish• fixed crankshaft there was neither a need for a heavy 17 water-cooling system nor for a flywheel. They man• miraculous French Gnome engine. So in 1912, in order aged to present their first seven-cylinder rotary engine, to promote development of aero-engines. Emperor Wil• which they called 'Gnome', in the aviation section of helm II finally set up a competition with alluring prizes. the Paris Motor Show on December 24, 1908. The However, a condition was, that the engines had to be engine attracted great interest and saw its breakthrough produced in factories in Germany without use of parts at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne made abroad. This ruled out the French Gnomes, and held near Reims in France during August 1909. It was three types of German-made rotaries failed in the com• the first international public flying event and has to be petition.