Mention Porsche to any of your friends, and their minds will immediately travel to land-going vehicles, most likely high end sports cars. But there have been a lot of other products. Ever the venturesome company, Porsche early on produced a number of industrial and aircraft versions of their flat four engines and, in 1959, successfully powered a small two-seat airplane with an engine that had been converted to dry sump oiling and dual ignition. There was even an engine designed to run vertically that was used by an American company to power an experimental one man military helicopter; not knowing this, I was amazed to find one of these in the air museum attached to the Pensacola Naval base some years ago. And then there were the sixes.
You may have never seen one of the famous flat-six Porsche engines in this particular configuration, even if you follow the brand closely (as you obviously do since you are here at FLATSIXES.com). Produced for a few years in the 1980s, these were Porsche’s answer to providing smoother, quieter, and more elegant power to the owner of small private aircraft. Carried forward by enthusiastic private pilot and then-head of Porsche AG Peter Schutz, the PFM3200 was a Carrera engine modified to meet the arduous standards for aircraft engines. Dry sumped and with K-Jetronic injection, changes included gear driven overhead cams, dual ignition, and an offset belt driven cooling fan. Power was sent to the propeller through a gear box equipped to dampen vibration from the prop. Later versions saw turbocharging, as in the example shown above on the demonstration stand.
This photograph was made at the 1987 Porsche Parade, held close to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and several of us were given brief rides in the Carrera-engine Cessna, maroon and white with the extended Porsche script prominent on its nose. In a long interview with Panorama editor Betty Jo Turner, Schutz pointed out that the development process had involved running Carrera engines more than 600 hours at full load for the first time, and strongly implied related improvements to the automotive counterparts of the new airplane engine. Also installed in some Mooney aircraft (note the photograph on the wall behind the engine), the Porsche Flugmotor, for all its elegant engineering, didn’t have the commercial popularity that Schutz had hoped for, and was withdrawn by Porsche not long after he left the company at the end of 1987, thus becoming another postscript in their long and varied history.
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A pair of flat-six turbocharged 930 engines were also the propulsion for the AI Skyship 500 (and subsquent 600 variant), which although it never was much of a commercial success, did very successfully continue flying through the 1980/90s. Design brief and endurance were similar to the winged aircraft brief and probably when retired had accumulated the most logged flight hours of their type, if only due to the prolonged time aloft of the aircraft type.
Thanks, Craig. I had heard of these, but never had the opportunity to see or photograph one.
I remember seeing that plane giving rides at the '87 DFW Porsche Parade. Sol Snyderman, owner of Perfect Power in Buffalo Grove, IL (a NW suburban Chicago indy shop) helped out a lot with the development work of the 6-cylinder engine for the Mooney aircraft, and he'll occasionally discuss that development with Chicago PCA members when we hold our annual TSD Rallye School at his shop each spring.
I recall seeing the "one man helicopter" (actually it was a ground effects machine) at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, NJ in 1962 or 1963. I owned a 356-A at the time and was familiar with Porsche engines. As I recall the engine was a "Super 90" with few visible modifications. The thing was sitting in an unused shop in Hangar One (the one where they parked the Hindenberg). It appeared complete and ready to operate. I was fascinated by it and would have loved to "fly"it, (I was a newly winged Naval Aviator at the time) but could locate no one who knew anything about it except that "they" used to "fly" it in Hangar One at one time not too far in the past---that would be the 1962 past. I also considered ways to gain ownership of the engine so I could put it in my 356 normal. That didn''t happen either. I have no idea what ever happened to it. Might still be sitting there.
I owned a Mooney Porsche in the late 80's. It was a great airplane that I flew to many races. It was fast and fuel efficient but didn't have much carrying capacity...a couple of guys and light baggage. I believe it was the first single lever control engine available. I understand that Porsche eventually bought all of them (20?) back and they were converted back to traditional engines (Lycomings?)
porsche the best cars i ever own/in racing and going too church