The Maybach Mb IVa was a water-cooled aircraft and airship

straight-six engine The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bala ...

developed in Germany during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

by '' Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH'', a subsidiary of

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

. It was one of the world's first series-produced engines designed specifically for high-altitude use. It was quite different engine design than the previous

Maybach Mb.IV The Maybach Mb.IV, originally designated Maybach HS, (only related to the Mb IVa by layout and size), was a six cylinder in-line piston engine of output, originally developed for use in airships. It was also used for large aircraft such as the Ze ...

, not just a simple modification.

Design and development

Like all engines of that time, the previous Maybach design, the Mb IV, lost at high altitude as much as half of the nominal power of 240 horsepower. The new Maybach Mb IVa of 1916 was the first engine designed to overcome this limitation. It did not use a

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

, but a much more primitive solution. The engine had purposely "oversized" cylinders, and a significantly higher 6.08:1 compression ratio. It was tested on

Wendelstein (mountain) Wendelstein is a mountain in the Bavarian Alps in South Germany. It is part of the Mangfall Mountains, the eastern part of the Bavarian Pre-Alps, and is the highest peak in the Wendelstein massif. It lies between the valleys of the Leitzach and ...

at an altitude of 1800 m and rated there at 245 hp. This would theoretically correspond to rating of about 300 hp at sea level; however, the engine was not designed to withstand such power - it needed to be carefully throttled down at low altitude, so it would not exceed the safe level of 245 hp. It had three carburettor settings, to be changed during the flight depending on the altitude. The engine was falsely given a rating of at sea level, so it would not appear inferior to the engines it replaced.

Applications

During the First World War

* Friedrichshafen G.V (one built) * Gotha G.VIII (one built) *

Gotha G.IX The Gotha G.VIII, GL.VIII, G.IX, and G.X were a family of bomber aircraft produced in Germany during the final months of World War I. Based on the Gotha G.VII, they were intended as high-speed tactical bombers featuring advanced streamlining for ...

* Gotha WD.8 *

Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 The Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 was a German two-seat fighter aircraft, fighter floatplane which served in the closing months of World War I with the Imperial German Navy's () Naval Air Service () from bases on the North Sea coast. Background and d ...

LFG Roland G.I The LFG Roland G.I was a large prototype single-engine biplane bomber built in Germany in 1915, during World War I. It had a single engine buried in the fuselage driving pusher configuration propeller (aircraft), propellers mounted on outriggers ...

* Rumpler C.VII *

airships, beginning with LZ 105 up to LZ 114 *

Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III The Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III (known incorrectly postwar as the Dornier Rs.III) was a large four-engined monoplane flying boat designed by Claudius Dornier and built during 1917 on the German side of Lake Constance at the Zeppelin-Lindau works. D ...

Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV The Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV (known incorrectly postwar as the Dornier Rs.IV) was a ''Riesenflugzeug'' (Giant aircraft) monoplane all metal flying boat with a stressed skin hull and fuselage developed for the Imperial German Navy to perform long ra ...

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* Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV *

Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV The Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV was an Imperial German bomber of World War I. An incremental improvement to the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, this was one of a series of large strategic bombers called ''Riesenflugzeug A ''Riesenflugzeug'' (plural ''Riesenf ...

After the First World War

* Aero A.10 *

Albatros L 58 __NOTOC__ The Albatros L 58 was a German airliner of the 1920s. It was a single-engine cantilever monoplane which accommodated the pilot in an open cockpit at the top of the fuselage, and seated five-six passengers within it. Variants * L 58 ...

Heinkel HE 1 The Heinkel HE 1 (aka Caspar S 1) was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane floatplane, designed in 1921 by German designer Ernst Heinkel at Caspar-Werke. The HE 1 was produced under licence in Sweden for the '' Marinen'' (Swedish Navy) in 1921 as th ...

FVM S 21 FVM may refer to: * Finite volume method * Five Mile Airport, in Alaska, United States * Flugfélag Vestmannaeyja, a defunct Icelandic airline * Fuvahmulah Airport, in Maldives * Middle Rhine Football Association The Middle Rhine Football Associa ...

Kawanishi K-7 Transport Seaplane The Kawanishi K-7 Transport Seaplane was a Japanese single-engined biplane floatplane of the 1920s. Eleven were built from 1924 to 1927, being used to carry passengers and airmail. Design and development In December 1923, Eiji Sekiguchi, chief ...

* Fizir F1V-Maybach

Other Maybach engines

The earlier Maybach engines were: *Maybach AZ of 1909: *Maybach CX of 1915: *Maybach DW and IR of 1914: *Maybach HS (there was a variant HSLu, known also as HS-Lu) of 1915: *Maybach Mb III - a new designation for the existing Maybach IR engine *Maybach Mb IV - a new designation for the existing Maybach HS engine The power ratings for these older engines are at sea level, unlike the rating of the Mb IVa.

Specifications (Mb.IVa)

Design and development

Applications

During the First World War

After the First World War

Other Maybach engines

Specifications (Mb.IVa)

See also

References

Further reading