Porsche PFM 3200
Encyclopedia
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
's PFM 3200 was a six-cylinder horizontally opposed air-cooled
Engine cooling
Internal combustion engine cooling refers to the cooling of an internal combustion engine, typically using either air or a liquid.- Overview :...
aircraft engine
Aircraft engine
An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
developed from their air-cooled line of automobile engines from the famous Porsche 911
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a luxury 2-door sports coupe made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a distinctive design, rear-engined and with independent rear suspension, an evolution of the swing axle on the Porsche 356. The engine was also air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998...
sports car. The PFM designation was derived from the name of the division that designed the engines, Porsche-Flugmotoren (~ Porsche Flight Engines).
Design and development
In the 1950s, European light aircraftLight aircraft
A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross take-off weight of or less.Many aircraft used commercially for freight, sightseeing, photography and scheduled flights are light aircraft.Examples of light aircraft include:...
builders began adapting the air-cooled automobile engines from the Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
356
Porsche 356
The Porsche 356 was the company's first production automobile. It was a lightweight and nimble handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2 door sports car available in hardtop coupe and open configurations. Design innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports...
and Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
into aircraft engines with a series of limited modifications. Porsche cooperated with some of these builders and produced a series of factory-built engines for about six years between 1957 and 1963, the Porsche 678 series. These relatively small engines displaced about 1.6 litres (97 cubic inch
Cubic inch
The cubic inch is a unit of measurement for volume in the Imperial units and United States customary units systems. It is the volume of a cube with each of its 3 sides being one inch long....
es) and produced between 55 and 70 horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
, depending on the version.
Porsche decided to re-enter the aviation market with much larger engines derived from the Porsche 911, starting development in 1981. As the engines ran at higher speed than most aircraft engine designs, the propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
drive used a 0.442:1 reduction gearing so it could drive common propellers. The high operating speed meant the engine ran more smoothly than older designs, and the use of a muffler meant it was quieter as well. With about 3.2 litres (195 cubic inches) displacement, the normally aspirated N-series models produced about 210 hp, while the turbocharged
Turbocharger
A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...
T-series produced about 240 hp. This was roughly twice the horsepower of a conventional lower-rpm
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
design of the same size. With single-lever operation, fully aerobatic fuel and oil supplies, direct fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
with automatic altitude compensation and optional turbocharging, the PFM 3200 series were some of the most advanced engines on the market.
After being introduced in late 1985 and starting to generate increasing interest in the general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
(GA) market, Porsche exited the field during the massive downturn in the market in the late 1980s, closing the lines in 1991. It is suggested that the program cost them US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
75 million to develop and produce the small number of engines delivered (about 80). Although marketed for only a short period, the PFM was found on a variety of aircraft as the primary powerplant, or as one-off modifications. These included the Extra 330, Mooney M20
Mooney M20
The Mooney M20 is a family of piston-powered, propeller-driven general aviation aircraft, all featuring a low-wing and tricycle gear, manufactured by the Mooney Airplane Company.The "M20" was the twentieth design from Al Mooney, and his most successful...
L, Socata TB
Socata TB
|-Specifications :-Specifications :-See also:...
-16, Robin DR400
Robin DR400
|- References :*Exavia Ltd - article "A DR400 Buyers' Guide"* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft , 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 2799...
, Ruschmeyer MF-85 and others. Only the M20L went into production, with 40 produced in 1988, and one more in 1989.
In a letter dated September 17, 2007, Porsche informed the FAA that they were surrendering their type certificate
Type certificate
A Type Certificate, is awarded by aviation regulating bodies to aerospace manufacturers after it has been established that the particular design of a civil aircraft, engine, or propeller has fulfilled the regulating bodies' current prevailing airworthiness requirements for the safe conduct of...
for the PFM 3200 engine and that they would no longer support the engine. In March 2009, the FAA issued a special airworthiness information bulletin stating that type certificates for existing aircraft with the PFM 3200 engine were still valid and would remain so as long as the aircraft meet FAR
Federal Aviation Regulations
The Federal Aviation Regulations, or FARs, are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs are part of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations...
part 43 maintenance requirements and FAR
Federal Aviation Regulations
The Federal Aviation Regulations, or FARs, are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs are part of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations...
part 91 operation requirements. However, the bulletin also said that Porsche is not exporting new or replacement parts for the engine and there is no guidance as to how compliance would be possible once existing OEM parts are exhausted.
Versions
- N00: de-rated for automotive fuel
- N01: 212 hp at 5300 rpm
- N03: type-certified N01 for the Mooney M20L, 217 hp at 5300 rpm
- T03: similar to the N03 but with a Garrett turbocharger, 241 hp at 5300 rpm, critical altitude 18,000 ft
See also
- Chevrolet Corvair engineChevrolet Corvair engineThe Chevrolet Corvair engine was a flat-6 piston engine used exclusively in the 1960s Chevrolet Corvair automobile. It was a highly unusual engine for General Motors: It was air-cooled, used a flat design, with aluminum heads and crankcase, with individual iron cylinder barrels...
-another "flat-six" auto engine also converted for use in general aviation
Further reading
- Helmuth Bott, Heinz Dorsch, "Porsche Aircraft Engine P F M 3200", SAE International, April 1985, #850895
- Alfred Scott, "Dead on Arrival: Porsche PFM", Falco Builder Letter, March 1988