Paul Haenlein (17 October 1835 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

– 27 January 1905 in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

) was a German engineer and flight pioneer. He flew in a semi-rigid-frame dirigible. His family belonged to the ''Citoyens notables'', those notabilities who led the economy, administration and culture of Mainz. Haenlein received an education as a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and pattern maker. He studied at the

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ). ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

. Subsequently he worked as graduated civil engineer for different factories. He was the first to create a dirigible

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

which was powered by an

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

. This

Lenoir Lenoir may refer to: Locations: * Lenoir, North Carolina, United States * Lenoir County, North Carolina, United States * Lenoir City, Tennessee In Universities: * Lenoir-Rhyne University * Lenoir Dining Hall, a dining hall at the University of N ...

-type motor obtained its fuel from the gas in the balloon. It had four horizontal cylinders, which delivered about with a consumption of approximately of gas per hour. With a mass of 233 kg and an

engine displacement Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of the ...

of 19.2 L it delivered a continuous

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

of 2.7 kW. The gas was sucked from the envelope of the balloon, which was kept fully inflated by pumping in compensating air to the air bags inside the main envelope. Due to the consumption of gas, the lifting force decreased, so the range of the airship had been limited. In 1872 Haenlein obtained a U.S. patent (No. 130 915) to use the otherwise wasted gas in the dirigible's engines. On 13 December, Paul Haenlein tested the first

with a gas engine in

Brünn Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, achieving 19 km/h. This airship was a direct forerunner of the Lebaudy type, in length, greatest diameter, and with a cubic capacity of . The airship achieved 19 km/h. The tests were stopped later, because of a shortage of money. A propeller of in diameter was driven by the Lenoir engine with 40 revolutions per minute. This was the first instance of the use of an internal combustion engine in connection with aeronautical experiments. The envelope of the dirigible was rendered

airtight A hermetic seal is any type of sealing that makes a given object airtight (preventing the passage of air, oxygen, or other gases). The term originally applied to airtight glass containers, but as technology advanced it applied to a larger categor ...

by means of an internal

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

coating, with a thinner film on the outside. Syngas, used for inflation, formed a suitable fuel for the engine, but limited the height to which the dirigible could ascend. Such trials as were made were carried out with the dirigible held captive. A full experiment was prevented because funds ran low, but Haenlein's work constituted a distinct advance on all that had been done previously. This engine type had the disadvantage of requiring either a gas-producer or a large storage capacity for the gas, either of which makes the total weight of the power plant much greater than that of a petrol engine.

References

*''Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon'' of 1895 *Wolfgang Metzger und Andrea Erne: ''Alles über Flugzeuge'' Ravensburger Buchverlag, 2002 * Vierteljahreshefte für Kultur, Politik, Wirtschaft, Geschichte (quarterly review) ''Mainz the cradle of the dirigible airship''; Editor.: Stadt Mainz; Verlag Bonnewitz Communication real madrid, 02/2005 *''airship'' (2006), from Encyclopædia Britannica {{DEFAULTSORT:Haenlein, Paul 1835 births 1905 deaths German mechanical engineers German airship aviators Airship designers German balloonists German aerospace engineers Engineers from Cologne People from the Rhine Province