BMW 803

The BMW 803 was a liquid-cooled 28 -cylinder radial engine quadruple the power class to 4,000 hp, in which, in contrast to the Pratt & Whitney R -4360 the cylinders were arranged in straight rows. The development began in mid- 1939. 1944 ran several engines on the test, but serial production was not.

The engine was developed on the basis of Doppelsternmmotors BMW 801, but you saw instead of the air in front of a water cooling system. It consisted of two sub- engines, which, back wall were arranged behind one another on the rear panel. The rear part of the engine transferred its power through five parallel sub-shafts that ran between the front rows of cylinders through it, to a lying front reduction gear. About two more spurious performance was led from the front of the engine to the rear, in order to drive loader and auxiliary drives the front motor. The two sub- engines could be switched off independently. Every part of the engine drifted over the reduction gear on its own counter to each other, propeller with a diameter of 3.20 meters.

The BMW 803 was intended, among other things, the giant flying boat Blohm & Voss BV P 200, the heavy bomber Focke -Wulf Fw 238 and a Focke -Wulf fighter with rear wheel drive. However, already the development of the engine was not very successful; among other things brought the flat slide control is not the expected performance gain.

A single copy of the BMW 803 exists in the flight Schleißheim, a branch of the Deutsches Museum. This, however, was composed of the partial engines of two different V- pattern.

Specifications

• Type: 28 -cylinder four- row radial engine
• Bore: 156 mm
• Stroke: 156 mm
• Displacement: 83.5 l
• Weight (dry ): 2950 kg
• Valves: one per cylinder intake valve and exhaust valve 1 (sodium cooled)
• Direct
• Cooling: Pressure water cooling
• Power: 2,868 kW ( 3,845 hp)
• Displacement Power: 34.3 kW / liter ( 46 hp / l, 0.75 hp / in ³)
• Compression: 6.5: 1