Karl Maybach

Karl Maybach (1879 to 1960) was a German mechanical engineer and industrial executive, known as a designer of internal combustion engines. Born in Deutz, he was the eldest son of the automobile pioneer Wilhelm Maybach. After graduating as a mechanical engineer he worked from 1904 to 1906 as a test engineer at the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Cannstatt and then moved to a design office in Paris. In 1909 he became technical director of Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH in Bissingen an der Enz, a company created to build engines suited to airships, and in 1912 he moved it to Friedrichshafen to work more closely with its main customer, Zeppelin. During the First World War he designed the over-compressed Maybach Mb.IVa aircraft engine. After the war he turned to diesel engines for rail and marine use, including submarines, and under National Socialism he also worked on tank engines and sat on the tank commission. A French army contract for a tank diesel after the Second World War kept his works alive, and civilian diesel production resumed in Friedrichshafen in 1950. He left the company in 1952 after tying it to Daimler-Benz and died in 1960. Honours included an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Stuttgart in 1924 and honorary citizenship of Friedrichshafen in 1929.