Managements Essays - Volkswagen Group, Porsche, Coupes, Sports Cars

Ferdinand Porsche This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006) This article is about the founder of Porsche automobiles. For his grandson, the designer of the Porsche 911, see Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. Ferdinand Porsche Born3 September 1875 Maffersdorf, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire Died30 January 1951 (aged 75) Stuttgart, West Germany[1] NationalityAustro-Hungarian, Austrian, German ChildrenFerry Porsche and Louisa Porsche Work Significant projectsMercedes-Benz SS/SSK, Tiger I, Tiger II, the Elefant, and the Volkswagen Beetle Significant awardsGerman National Prize for Art and Science Ferdinand Porsche[2] (3 September 1875 ? 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle (gasoline-electric), the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles. Porsche designed the 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen, which was the first race car with mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. Known in business circles as the "great engineer",[3] he made a number of contributions to advanced German tank designs: Tiger I, Tiger II, and the Elefant as well as the super-heavy Panzer VIII Maus tank, which was never put into production. He also made contributions in aircraft design, including the Junkers Ju 88, and the Focke-Wulf Ta 152.[4] Additionally, he helped develop and manufacture retaliatory weapons (Vergeltungswaffen), such as the V-1 flying bombs(Fi 103 flying bombs).[5] In 1937, Porsche was awarded the German National Prize for Art and Science, one of the rarest decorations in Nazi Germany. In 1996, Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 1999 posthumously won the award of Car Engineer of the Century. Contents ?[hide]? 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 Austro-Daimler 4 Founding of Porsche 4.1 Volkswagen Beetle 4.2 Auto Union racing car 5 Post war 6 Return to Stuttgart 7 Views on Labor 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links [edit]Early life See also: Porsche family Ferdinand Porsche was born to German-speaking parents in Maffersdorf (Czech: Vratislavice nad Nisou), northern Bohemia, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, what is today the Czech Republic. He showed high aptitude for mechanical work at a very young age. He managed to attend classes at the Imperial Technical School in Reichenberg (Czech: Liberec) at night while helping his father in his mechanical shop by day. Thanks to a referral, Porsche landed a job with the B?la Egger Electrical company in Vienna when he turned 18.[6] In Vienna he would sneak into the local university whenever he could after work. Beyond auditing classes there, Porsche had never received any higher engineering education. During his five years with B?la Egger, Porsche first developed the electric hub motor. [7] [edit]Early career In 1898, Porsche joined the Vienna-based factory Jakob Lohner & Co, that produced coaches for Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, as well as for the kings of England, Sweden, and Romania.[citation needed] Jakob Lohner had begun construction of automobiles in 1896 under Ludwig Lohner in the trans-Danubian suburb of Floridsdorf. Their first design, unveiled in 1898, was the "System Lohner-Porsche", a carriage-like car driven by two electric motors, directly fitted within the front wheel hubs, and powered by batteries. This drive train construction was easily expanded to four-wheel drive, by simply mounting two more electric motors to the rear wheels as well, and indeed such a specimen was ordered by the Englishman E. W. Hart in 1900. In December that year, the car was presented at the Paris World Exhibition under the name Toujours-Contente. Even though this one-off vehicle[8] had been commissioned for the purposes of racing and record-breaking, the 1,800 kg of lead acid batteries it required graphically illustrated the limits of this powertrain concept. Though it "showed wonderful speed when it was allowed to sprint",[citation needed] the weight of its huge battery pack meant that it was singularly reluctant to climb hills and suffered from limited range due to limited battery life. The Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid Still employed by Lohner, Porsche reached the logical conclusion and in 1901 introduced the "Mixte" vehicle/transmission concept: instead of a massive battery-pack, an internal combustion engine built by the German firm, Daimler, was fitted to a generator to drive the electric hub motors and (for vehicle reliability) a small battery pack. This way Porsche had created the first petroleum electric hybrid vehicle on record, although since sufficiently reliable gears