Max Friz (October 1, 1883 – June 9, 1966) was a German mechanical engineer specializing in engine design. He was the key contributor of engine design and innovation that led to the founding of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) in 1917.
31-714: Assumed to be originally from Urach , very little is known about Friz' youth. It is known however, that at a young age, he apprenticed to the Kuhn steam engine company in Cannstatt starting in 1898. In 1902, he enrolled at the Royal Building Trade School in Stuttgart-Esslingen furthering his engineering skills. In 1906, he was employed by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft , in the Design Office, making major contributions to
62-517: A total-loss oiling systems , the new BMW engine featured a recirculating wet-sump oiling system. However, it was not a "high-pressure oil" system based on shell bearings and tight clearances that we are familiar with, but a drip feed to roller bearings. This system was used by BMW until 1969. The wet-sump system was not overly common on motorcycles until the 1970s and the arrival of Japanese motorcycles. Until then, many manufacturers had used dry sump , with an external oil-tank made of sheet-metal. Friz
93-488: A cousin of the king of Württemberg was created Duke of Urach but lived 21 kilometres (13 mi) away at Lichtenstein Castle . Since 1985 the town has been a nationally recognized spa town . Several million years ago, the area was actively volcanic. Due to an anomaly in the subsurface, the town has a thermal spring with water at 61 °C. The spring was developed to serve as a spa operation and mineral thermal baths. In
124-588: A hill overlooking the Erms Valley, Hohenurach Castle was built around 1025. In the Middle Ages Bad Urach (at that time only known as Urach) became a centre of power. The castle became a state prison in the late Middle Ages; the poet Philipp Nikodemus Frischlin died while trying to escape over its walls in 1590. In the 18th century, the fortress was razed to the ground by the citizenry. Around 1260, Urach became part of Württemberg . Nearly 100 years later, at
155-527: A short time. When BMW GmbH went public in 1922, Friz was named the first Chief Engineer and design director of BMW AG, a post he would hold until 1937. With the development of its first light alloy cylinder head , a much more significant "across the frame" version of the boxer engine was designed. In 1923 the R32 debuted at the Paris Auto Show, and caused quite a sensation among engineers and consumers alike. Using
186-538: Is a town in the district of Reutlingen , Baden-Württemberg , Germany . It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen , at the foot of the Swabian Jura (or Swabian Alps), and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath . The following towns border Urach and are also part of the district of Reutlingen. Clockwise from the north are: Hülben , Grabenstetten , Römerstein , Gutsbezirk Münsingen , Münsingen , St. Johann and Dettingen an der Erms . Bad Urach consists of
217-685: Is the Castle Gardena. In the district of Bad Urach are the villages Berg, Gyrenbad, Merzhausen, Hausen, Sontheim and Weiler, and in Wittlingen district are the villages Henni Fountain, Hofstetten and Winneden and Castle Baldeck. In the early Stone Age , the Alb was already populated, and several caves in the area show evidence that they provided shelter for the inhabitants. During the Alemanni period, Bad Urach had an important castle. Owing to its prime location on
248-565: The Barbara Gonzaga Community school Bad Urach , the primary school in Wittlingen district, two special schools as well as a business school. Bad Urach has a far-reaching tradition in tourism and is a premier health resort and spa. The successful drilling for mineral thermal water and its development led in 1983 to the recognition as a spa, which had according to the Statistical Office of Baden-Württemberg for Bad Urach in 2012
279-482: The saints and church fathers and is considered an important piece of German stonemasonry . The 1518 baptismal font is by the sculptor Christoph von Urach [ de ] . Also of interest are the ruins of the old castle (Schloss Hohenurach) and the waterfall (Uracher Wasserfall) on the hiking trail up to it. The "round mountain" ("Runder Berg"), a former volcano, is of archaeological interest and shows an old Alemanni castle. Bundesstraße 28 runs through
310-506: The Bearded was born, contains rooms that date from the Gothic , Renaissance , and Baroque periods. The Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), one of Germany's loveliest Renaissance rooms, is particularly worth a visit. The Church of Saint Amandus dates from 1477 and was built in the Gothic style for Eberhard the Bearded. His lavish praying desk dates from 1472. The pulpit is decorated with figures of
341-477: The Daimler engine company, Max Friz had tried in vain to develop an oversized, high-compression engine, but Paul Daimler had firmly committed himself to supercharger technology. Not until he had moved to Munich was Friz able to put his own ideas for a high-altitude engine into practice. In the space of a few weeks he designed a new aero-engine, which, with an innovative carburettor and a variety of other technical details,
SECTION 10
#1732855726051372-535: The city and connects it to the west with Reutlingen and Tübingen and to the east with Ulm . The B 465 leads from Bad Urach to Ehingen and Biberach . The Erms Valley Railway connects Bad Urach with Metzingen , and there is a connection to the Plochingen-Tübingen railway . The Public transport is guaranteed by the Verkehrsverbund Neckar-Alb-Donau (NALDO). The city is located in
403-932: The comb 221. Bad Urach has a District Court , which belongs to the Landgerichtsbezirk Tübingen and Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk Stuttgart. Furthermore, Bad Urach has a tax office (Finanzamt) and the Ermstal Clinic is a hospital. The city is also home to the Kirchenbezirk Bad Urach of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg . In the city, there are the Graf-Eberhard-Gymnasium, the Geschwister-Scholl-Realschule. Since 2012 there is, named after Barbara Gonzaga ,
434-482: The company was forbidden from aircraft design. This necessitated the need for new avenues of growth for the company. Friz, with his designs and engineering expertise, launches BMW into the motorcycle market with the development of the R32 motorcycle, which established the foundation for all future boxer powered BMW motorcycles (in addition to numerous motorsport titles and world records). Friz and his team of engineers design
465-499: The design of the racing engine for the 1914 Mercedes Grand Prix car that won the French Grand Prix . Friz designed the first practical German aircraft engines in 1912-1913 while at Austro-Daimler . The engines had separate cylinders on the crankcase and an overhead camshaft driven by a vertical shaft and bevel gears. At the end of 1916 the young engineer Max Friz applied for a position with Rapp Motorenwerke . At that time Friz
496-490: The districts Hengen (687.01 ha; 854 inhabitants, on 31 December 2005), Seeburg (220.65 ha; 302 inhabitants), Sirchingen (481.78 ha; 1031 inhabitants), Bad Urach (2,797, 89 ha; 9289 inhabitants) and Wittlingen (1362.24 ha; 1112 inhabitants). With the exception of the district Bad Urach, the neighbourhoods form simultaneously villages within the meaning of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Municipal Code. Urach includes
527-416: The documentation for the construction design for the new engine, dubbed project "BBE". Friz' design, based on Karl Rapp's design) was laid out as an in-line six-cylinder, which guaranteed optimum balance, therefore few, small vibrations. The engine was successful, but the real breakthrough came in 1917, when Friz integrated a basically simple throttle butterfly into the "high-altitude carburettor ", enabling
558-486: The early part of the 21st century a geothermal project was started, to develop electricity generation and heating in the town. The project failed in 2004 due to insufficient finance. Bad Urach possesses a late-medieval marketplace with a city hall and half-timbered houses that date from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Residenzschloss (Castle Residence), the residential home of the Counts of Württemberg-Urach where Eberhard
589-451: The engine to develop its full power high above the ground. This is precisely the reason why the engine, now dubbed "Type IIIa", had unique superiority in air combat. The water-cooled in-line 6-cylinder engine's reputation grew very quickly. Franz-Zeno Diemer , the pioneering aviator, sets a new world altitude record with a 32,000 ft (9760 m) flight in 1919 using the BMW IVa engine. It
620-414: The first "boxer" (or opposed twin ) engine was the fore-and-aft M2B15 , based on a British Douglas design. It was manufactured by BMW in 1921/1922 but mostly used in other brands of motorcycles, notably Victoria of Nuremberg . The M2B15 proved to be moderately successful and BMW used it in its own Helios motorcycle. BMW also developed and manufactured a small 2-stroke motorcycle called the "Flink" for
651-411: The higher a pilot flies a plane, a conventional engine at this time literally stalled out above 3,000 meters). In the spring of 1917, at the time Friz was working at the drawing board on his groundbreaking engine, the outlook for Rapp Motorenwerke was bad. The Army High Command wanted to commit itself to a few types of aircraft and aeroengine and then get these built under license by several companies. In
SECTION 20
#1732855726051682-451: The homestead of Güterstein. Among the districts ofHengen and Sirchingen, each include only the villages of the same name. Seeburg includes the village of Seeburg, the castle and courtyard and the village of Wittlingen, the homestead Hohenwittlingen and the individual houses, Georgenau, the pumping station Ermsgruppe XIII, including Front Albgruppe, Schanz and Villa Mühleisen. In the Hengen district
713-419: The new aluminum alloy cylinders, Friz designed a 486 cc (29.7 cu in) engine with 8.5 hp (6.3 kW) and a top speed of 95–100 km/h (59–62 mph). The R32 was the second major product Friz designed for his company, effectively keeping the company solvent during a difficult time. The engine and gear box formed a bolt-up single unit . At a time when many motorcycle manufacturers used
744-607: The number of 367.344 overnight stays. [REDACTED] Media related to Bad Urach at Wikimedia Commons Unincorporated: Gutsbezirk Münsingen BMW IVa The BMW IV was a six-cylinder , water-cooled inline aircraft engine built in Germany in the 1920s. Power was in the 180 kW (250 hp) range. On 17 June 1919 Franz Zeno Diemer flew a DFW F37 , powered by a BMW IV engine to an unofficial world record height of 9,760 m (32,021 ft) from Oberwiesenfeld , reaching that altitude in 89 minutes. Diemer stated at
775-564: The officers was considerable, and soon there was no more talk of the Rapp engine factory being relegated to the rank of a mere assembler. In fact, the Reichswehr was so impressed by the new engine that it placed an order for 600 units, even before a single prototype had been produced. The aeroengine developed by Friz had turned Rapp Motorenwerke into an essential contributor to the war effort virtually overnight. On 20 May 1917, Rapp Motorenwerke registered
806-649: The spring of 1917 a commission from the Reichswehr therefore inspected the Rapp engine plant. They had to decide which engines would in future have to be produced under license in Munich. In the end, the Rapp management was faced with the choice of manufacturing either Daimler or Benz engines. However, Franz Josef Popp seized the opportunity of presenting the new engine to the commission of experts, an engine which up to now had only existed in Max Friz's drawings. The interest shown by
837-546: The time when Württemberg was divided, the southern part of the region was governed from Urach, the so-called "secret capital", which was the residential home of the Dukes of Württemberg from 1442 until 1482. Count Eberhard the Bearded was born here in 1445 and returned there frequently throughout his life. Over the next several centuries, the town prospered and became a centre for weaving . It escaped serious damage during any wars and so remains in excellent historical condition. In 1867
868-661: Was appointed to General Manager of BMW-Flugmotorenbau GmbH, Munich in 1934, and was there until 1937. With BMW continued growth into automobiles, Friz succeeded Leo C. Grass as General Manager of Flugmotorenfabrik Eisenach GmbH, overseeing development of automobile engine design and development. Friz retired from BMW in 1945. He was honored with an Honorary Doctorate from the Munich College of Advanced Technology in 1954. Friz died in Tegernsee on June 9, 1966. Bad Urach Bad Urach ( German: [baːt ˈuːʁax] )
899-552: Was still working for the Daimler engine company in Untertürkheim , near Stuttgart . However, he was frustrated because the chief engineer, Paul Daimler , ignored the suggestions of his young assistant on engine development. Faced with this situation, Friz remembered his former colleague, Karl Rapp . At first Rapp was going to turn down Friz's request; however, Josef Popp successfully intervened on Friz's behalf, because he recognized that Rapp Motorenwerke lacked an able designer. At
930-427: Was superior to any other German aero-engine. Later, this engine would gain world renown under the designation " BMW IIIa ". Upon arriving at Rapp Motorenwerke, Friz was tasked to develop an aircraft engine that could attain very high altitudes as well as be durable and aerodynamically favorable. A higher operational flight ceiling was a critical strategic advantage for the pilot (since the atmospheric pressure decreases
961-405: Was the success of this engine that allowed the company to grow exceptionally fast, necessitating the restructuring of the company. In 1917, Rapp Motorenwerke is renamed Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH the predecessor to the modern day BMW AG . Friz, as design director for BMW, designed further aircraft engines which strengthened BMW's reputation still further in later years. With World War I over,