Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Has anyone ever heard of the Wunibald Kamm (FKFS) 48-cyl. engine being shipped to the UK after WWII? Anyone know if it made it out of the scrapyard? Read this old report on turbine development by BMW (CIOS-XXVI-30) recently, which states it was shipped to the UK after the war:
View attachment 582045
View attachment 582046
Photo from another file - this is the 48-cylinder engine in (I assume) the guise it would have been shipped......look familiar to anyone in the UK?
TIA,
Brian W
Hello Brian,
I believe the engine pictured in your post is the Motor-Luftstrahltriebwerk (motorjet, a piston-powered turbine) designed by Max A. Müller in the early 1940s. Some work on the engine was done by Junkers, but then switched to Heinkel.
Info on the Kamm-designed FKFS Gruppen-Flugmotor in linked below. Kamm went to the US after WWII, and I have no knowledge of what happened to the FKFS engine.
FKFS Gruppen-Flugmotor A, C, and D
Hello Brian,
I don't know much about the engine. The image you posted appears on page 266 in "Junkers Flugtriebwerke" by Reinhard Müller. The caption basically says that it was a mockup. Some components were tested, but not a full engine. The project was cancelled in 1942.
I have not seen the report you posted, but it does seem to have a lot of info on the FKFS engine and some other interesting projects. Unfortunately, its quality makes it difficult for a non-German speaker like me to translate. But, maybe a better copy will show up. Thank for posting it.
I have just today found this rather poor copy of a German text which has quite a bit about the Kamm engine - does anyone have a better copy?
Thanks for the report, and I'm glad you like my site. I do what I can to keep the old stuff alive. There is a lot more info out there, but finding it and compiling it is the difficult part. I cannot wait to see what Calum Douglas has uncovered and included in his book "The Secret Horsepower Race." A lot of real research has gone into it.
For fun, I have attached patents for Max Müller's "Combined Recoil Drive" engine. They are the same patent; one is German and the other US.
Hi Brian,
I dont have a copy of that specific article, but from the "look" - I`d say its almost certainly a journal article in one of the "Jahrbuch der Deutchen Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung" bound volumes (which I have a few volumes of, but not I think one containing that article). These volumes are available at certain archives so I think it ought to be possible to find a proper copy of it eventually.
I have a few brief bits on the Gruppenmotor in my book, but very little as it was not envisaged as a fighter engine. I have photos which are clearly more advanced than a mockup, and are obviously proper machined parts. I`d have to check again as to if it actually ran in full-scale form.
EDIT:
I`ve got a Volkenrode translation - it appears upon inspection this morning.
As per Kamm`s article, it appears that the text on the OldMachinePress is accurate on this first point - in that this "A" Gruppenmotor was formed of cylinders
from the Hirth Hm512. Kamm says it says all paid for by Prof. Messerschmitt, (who was probably fed up waiting for a reliable very high power aero
engine for his own planes). This engine "A" was run in full scale, but it appears that the later B, C, D "Gruppenmotors" were probably not run
in full scale, and it states later power estimates were from single cylinder test results extrapolated, and using the results from the HM512
based full scale test.
Thanks again! I've seen the diagrams in an old Geoffrey Smith book on turbines, but although he states they were a Junkers design, it didn't mention Muller - nice to know the original designer. It seems Muller took the ML concept with him to Heinkel when he and part of his old Junkers team shifted there. Hans von Ohain states they took a petrol and a Diesel engine design along with them - I'd love to find any photos/drawings of that diesel........ I have the rather poor quality drawing from the Heinkel turbine report, but nothing else.
I also wonder when/how/if Junkers kept going with the ML concept, as they seem to have had a seperate 10/12-cylinder design that the Russians took over after WWII ended. So many questions; it is at times like these I do wish I spoke German and Russian........ I think I found these pics on this site, but they're too tantalising not to share again. I'll have to get a copy of Calum's book also and see if some if some questions are answered, or maybe I'll have some new ones - it sounds great!