Walter Aircraft Engines
Motor vehicle and aircraft engine manufacturer in Czechia
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Type | Subsidiary |
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Industry | Automobiles, Aerospace |
Founded | 1911 ; 112 years ago ( 1911 ) |
Headquarters | , |
Parent | GE Aviation |
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Walter Aircraft Engines is an aircraft engine manufacturer and former automotive manufacturer. Its notable products include the M601 turboprop. The company is based in Prague , Czech Republic . It has been a subsidiary of GE Aviation since July 2008.
History
Josef Walter founded the company in 1911 to make motorcycles and motor tricycles. [1] It started to make automobiles in 1913: [1] initially its own models, and later the Fiat 508 , [2] 514 , [3] 522 and 524 [4] under licence.
By 1926 Walter was Czechoslovakia's fourth-largest car maker by sales volume. In 1929 it still held fourth place, and production peaked at 1,498 cars for the year. [5] By 1932 Walter production had slumped to 217 cars for the year. [6] The figure recovered to 474 in 1933, [7] but fell again to 102 in 1936 [8] and to only 13 in 1937. [9]
Walter ceased car production in 1954. [1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Automobil_Walter_Motors.jpg/220px-Automobil_Walter_Motors.jpg)
From the early 1920s Walter also manufactured BMW aircraft engines under license, as well as its own family of air-cooled radial piston engines. In the 1930s Walter also made Bristol Jupiter , Mercury and Pegasus engines under licence, and then created its own in-line inverted air-cooled four- and six-cylinder engines, and in 1936 an air-cooled inverted V12 . Walter aircraft engines were used by the air forces of 13 countries before World War II . [1]
During World War II Walter made Argus engines under license for Germany. Manufacture of the BMW 003 turbojet was put into preparation, but none were produced. [1]
The Walter plant survived the war intact and in 1946 the company was nationalized as Motorlet n.p. It made Soviet-licensed piston engines, and in 1952 began manufacturing the Walter M-05 jet engine. This was the Soviet Klimov VK-1 engine, based on the Rolls-Royce Nene , which powered the MiG-15 , and was exported to many countries. The company made a series of Soviet-designed engines during the 1950s and 1960s, though piston engine production was closed and transferred to Avia in 1964. [1]
In 1995, the company was privatised as Walter a.s. , and in 2005 the aviation engine division became Walter Aircraft Engines . [1] In July 2006 it was acquired by the Czech investment firm, FF Invest. In March 2007 it was announced that Walter Aircraft Engines would merge with Avia's aero-engine division. [10] The company was also merged with the precision casting company PCS. [ citation needed ]
In September 2007, it was announced that the company's assets (which do not include its current facility in Prague) would be purchased by GE Aviation . The transaction was completed in July 2008. GE's interest in Walter has to do with the former's desire to compete more aggressively with Pratt & Whitney in the small turboprop market; Pratt & Whitney holds a commanding market share there. Walter builds the M601 engine, which GE hopes to refine and position against Pratt & Whitney's PT6. Walter currently builds 120 M601 engines per year; GE intends to increase production, by 2012, to 1,000 engines per year. [11] However this was never attained, as in 2019, GE Aviation Czech is producing under 100 M601s and H-Series.
Walter engine families
Data from:Engine Data Sheets:Czechoslovakian Aero Engines [12]
Walter developed families of engines based on common bore and stroke:
- Atom / Mikron
- Bore x Stroke 85 mm × 96 mm (3.35 in × 3.78 in)
- Minor
- Bore x Stroke 105 mm × 115 mm (4.14 in × 4.53 in)
- Junior
- Bore x Stroke 115 mm × 140 mm (4.53 in × 5.51 in)
- Major / Sagitta
- Bore x Stroke 118 mm × 140 mm (4.65 in × 5.51 in)
Engines
Radial
- Walter Atlas
- Walter Bora
- Walter Castor
- Walter Gemma
- Walter Mars I
- Walter Mars - license built Gnome-Rhône 14M .
- Walter Merkur - license built Bristol Mercury
- Walter NZ 40
- Walter NZ 60
- Walter NZ 85
- Walter NZ 120
- Walter Polaris
- Walter Pollux
- Walter Regulus
- Walter Scolar
- Walter Super Castor - 9-cylinder development of the Castor
- Walter Venus
- Walter Vega
Inline
- Walter Junior
- Walter Major
- Walter Mikron -produced 1935 onwards
- Walter Minor - first produced 1929, from 105 to 160 hp outputs
- Walter M332 - entered production in 1958
- Walter M337 - 6-cylinder development of the M332
- Walter M431 (project)
- Walter M436 (project)
V12
- Walter M446 (project)
- Walter Minor 12
- Walter Sagitta
Horizontally-opposed
Turbojet
Turboprop
Engines built under license
- Bristol Jupiter as Walter Jupiter
- Gnome-Rhône 14M as Walter Mars 14M
- Bristol Mercury as Walter Mercury
- Pobjoy R as Walter Mira R
- Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major as Walter Mistral 14K
- Packard DR-980 as Walter Packard Diesel
- Bristol Pegasus as Walter Pegasus
- BMW IIIa as Walter W-III
- BMW IV as Walter W-IV
- Junkers Jumo 204 as Walter Jumo IV C
- Fiat A.20 as Walter W-V, W-VI, W-VII and W-VIII
- Argus As 10 as Walter Argus 10
- Argus As 410 Walter Argus 410
- Rolls-Royce Nene as Walter M-05
- Klimov VK-1 as Walter M-06
- Walter M-07
- Ivchenko AI-25 as AI-25W
See also
Related lists
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "History" . Walter Engines a.s . Archived from the original on 8 July 2007 . Retrieved 15 May 2019 .
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 172.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 171.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 174.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 44.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 112.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 113.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 214.
- ↑ Tuček 2017 , p. 215.
- ↑ "Engines maker Walter to merge with part of Avia" . Prague Daily Monitor . 26 March 2007. Archived from the original on 1 April 2007.
- ↑ Lunsford, J. Lynn (3 July 2008). "GE Takes On Jet-Engine Rival" . The Wall Street Journal .
- ↑ Forbes, Peter; Forbes, Rita. "Engine Data Sheets:Czechoslovakian Aero Engines" . Peter & Rita Forbes' Engine Webpages . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
Bibliography
- Tuček, Jan (2017). Auta první republiky 1918–1938 (in Czech). Prague: Grada Publishing. ISBN 978-80-271-0466-6 .
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Forbes, Peter; Forbes, Rita. "Czechoslovakian Aero Engines: Page 117 of 140" . Engine Data Sheets .
License produced engines | |
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Opposed engines | |
Inline engines | |
V-12 engines | |
Radial engines | |
Turbojets | |
Turboprops |
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Subsidiaries of foreign companies | |
Components | |
Related topics | |