We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Felix
By Manntis December 22, 2002
Felix Wankel poses with an early prototype of his engine
The Early Years
Dr. Wankel, “the father of the rotary engine”, was born August 13, 1902 in Lahr, Germany. He was the only child of Rudolf Wankel (1867-1914), a senior forestry official who was killed by shrapnel in World War I as an Oberleutnant.
Although his family’s poverty (due in part to his mother’s status as a widow) meant he had to go to work and could not apprentice or follow further full-time studies. Lacking a degree, or a university education of any kind, Felix nevertheless e gained academic recognition for his first-rate technical mind.
In 1924, the German Depression caused him to be laid off from his job printing, stocking, and apprenticing in sales for a scientific book publisher in Heidelberg. Because he devoted his energy to tinkering he was able to open his own workshop and that same year conceived the idea of a rotary engine (at only 22!).
Wankel’s first attempt to obtain a patent was in 1926 for a “grease turbine”, but it was predated by an Enke design from 1886. In 1927 he made drawings of the shape of the “drehkolbenmaschine without uneven moved sections”, or rotary engine, and of sealing parts. He received his first patent in 1929 (DRP 507 584) and would continue to be issued patents for six decades. In 1933 he applied for a patent for a DKM engine, which he received in 1936.
A Nazi Engine?
While Hitler’s Germany was reviled for atrocities against humanity it was and is admired by some for technological advancement. The Volkswagen Beetle (Volkswagen literally meaning ‘People’s Car’) began as a project for Nazi Germany by Dr. Porsche, later of sports car design fame. Rockets that pummeled England were among the first of their kind and led to the development of the technology that brought Humankind to the moon. But are allegations that Felix Wankel developed the rotary engine for the Nazis true?
Like many middle class Germans of his time, ruined by the runaway inflation of the 1920’s, Wankel was attracted by the political and economic philosophies of national socialism. As a young man he was a member of the Hitler Youth (where he met his wife, Emmy Kirn) and then a member of the NSDAP party. He resigned from the Nazi Party 1932 which was the right idea, but the wrong time to do so; in 1933 the Nazis came into power. This lead to conflict because Wankel had exposed some corruption by the provincial chief (Gauleiter) Wagner. He was arrested and held in prison by the Nazis for some months in Lahr until an industrialist and an engineer intervened on his behalf.
His resignation prior to the Nazis rise to power, and subsequent imprisonment on political grounds, combined with the fact that he began patenting rotary designs in the mid 1920’s before joining the party, all seem to dispell the Nazi taint on Wankel’s brilliant design.
Out of prison – and back in again
Following his release, Wankel spent the prewar years working on rotary valves and sealing technology for several German firms. He continued in that vein during the war, developing seals and valves for use in German aircraft and in naval torpedoes. He mostly made his way by ingenious work on rotary valves and sealing technology for Lilienthal, BMW, DVL, Junker, and Daimler-Benz. During this time he developed various DKM prototypes along with rotary pumps and compressors.
But this got him arrested again. When the French army invaded in 1945, his workshops and research were dismantled (destroyed) by the French and he was imprisoned until 1946. They also closed his laboratory and confiscated his work.
Putting the patent to work
During the Allied occupation, Felix Wankel began secretly writing his book on the organization of rotary engines. He was able to rebuild a research operation by 1951 when he interested NSU in development. This lead to collaboration with Walter Froede, head of the motorcycle racing program, who would ultimately make the decision to adopt the KKM type.
The first truly functional Wankel rotary engine was a DKM type constructed in February 1957. By May a prototype was able to run for two hours and produce 21 bhp. The first KKM engine ran on July 7, 1958.
Many people had proposed rotary engine designs, but none had pursued it for as long or as relentlessly as Felix Wankel. He and NSU rigorously investigated all technical aspects such as sealing, spark plug positioning, port timing, cooling, lubrication, combustion, materials, and manufacturing tolerances. Thus where all others had failed, he and NSU were able to succeed by combining imaginative invention and scientific engineering.
Beyond the Rotary
Wankel (who, interestingly, never learned to drive) is also remembered for his passionate opposition to using animals in medical experimentation. There is even a Wankel prize awarded annually for outstanding research that simultaneously promotes the concept of animal protection in the laboratory.
Felix Wankel passed away on October 9, 1988.
Submitted on December 22, 2002 in Who's Who.
D'Arcy (aka 'manntis') has owned several RX-7s over the years, including a 1985 GSL-SE that had once been the daily driver of Pamela Anderson. Named 'Pam' after its former owner, that car met an untimely death outside of Roger's Pass in the Canadian Rockies when the highway turned and, thanks to rain, the car didn't. D'Arcy started Rotorhead as a labour of love in 2002, tired of trying to find information on 1st gen RX-7s scattered throughout the internet.
Manntis has contributed 31 articles to Rotorhead.
