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Type | Rail Transport |
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Industry | electrical industry ![]() |
Predecessor | Isaria Zählerwerke Schuckert & Co. ![]() |
Founded | 1903 |
Successor | Siemens Mobility |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Rail Types |
Parent | Siemens ![]() |
Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966.
Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & Halske acquired Schuckertwerke. [1] Subsequently, Siemens & Halske specialized in communications engineering and Siemens-Schuckert in power engineering and pneumatic instrumentation. During World War I Siemens-Schuckert also produced aircraft. It took over manufacturing of the renowned Protos vehicles in 1908. In World War II, the company had a factory producing aircraft and other parts at Monowitz near Auschwitz. There was a workers camp near the factory known as Bobrek concentration camp.
The Siemens Schuckert logo consisted of an S with a smaller S superimposed on the middle with the smaller S rotated left by 45 degrees. [notes 1] [2] The logo was used into the late 1960s, when both companies merged with the Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG to form the present-day Siemens AG.
Siemens-Schuckert built a number of designs in World War I and inter-war era. They also produced aircraft engines under the Siemens-Halske brand, which evolved into their major product line after the end of World War I. The company reorganized as Brandenburgische Motorenwerke, or simply Bramo, in 1936,[ citation needed ] and were later purchased in 1939 by BMW to become BMW Flugmotorenbau. [3]
Siemens-Schuckert designed a number of heavy bombers early in World War I, building a run of seven Riesenflugzeug. Intended to be used in the strategic role in long duration flights, the SSW R-series had three 150 h.p Benz Bz.III engines in the cabin driving two propellers connected to a common gear-box through a combination leather-cone and centrifugal-key clutch in SSW R.I to the SSW R.VII models (the SSW R.VIII utilized four engines). In the case of engine failure, which was extremely common at the time, the bomber could continue flying on two engines while the third was repaired by the in-flight mechanic. Two transmission shafts transferred the power from the gear-box to propeller gear-boxes mounted on the wing struts. Although there were some problems with the clutch system, the gear-box proved to be reliable when properly maintained. The SSW R.1 through the SSW R.VII designs were noted for their distinctive forked fuselage. Several of these aircraft (SSW R.V through the SSW R.VII) fought on the Eastern Front. Although interesting in concept, the cost of these and the R-types from other companies was so great that the air force eventually abandoned the concept until more practical designs arrived later in the war.
The first fighter designed at the works was the Siemens-Schuckert E.I which appeared in mid 1915, and which was the first aircraft to be powered by the Siemens-Halske Sh.I, a new rotary, developed by Siemens-Schuckert, in which the cylinders and the crankshaft rotated in opposite directions. A small number of production machines were supplied to various Feldflieger Abteilung to supplement supplies of the Fokker and Pfalz monoplane fighters used at the time mainly for escort work. The prototype SSW E.II, powered by the inline Argus AsII, crashed in June 1916, killing Franz Steffen, one of the designers of the SSW R types. By early 1916 the first generation of German monoplane fighters were outclassed by the Nieuport 11 and the Nieuport 17 which very quickly followed it; and Siemens-Schuckert were supplied with a captured Nieuport 17 to "study". The resulting SSW D.I was powered by the Siemens-Halske Sh.I, but was otherwise a fairly literal copy of the Nieuport 17. This aircraft was the first Siemens-Schuckert fighter to be ordered in quantity, but by the time it became available in numbers (well into 1917) it was outclassed by contemporary Albatros fighters.
Development of the Sh.I engine resulted in the eleven-cylinder, 160 hp Sh.III, perhaps one of the most advanced rotary engine designs of the war. The D.I fighter also formed the basis for a series of original designs, which by the end of 1917 had reached a peak in the Siemens-Schuckert D.III, which went into limited production in early 1918, and found use in home defense units as an interceptor, due to its outstanding rate of climb. Further modifications improved its handling and performance to produce the Siemens-Schuckert D.IV. Several offshoots of the design included triplanes and a parasol monoplane, but none saw production.
With the end of the war production of the D.IV continued, mainly for sales to Switzerland who flew them into the late 1920s. With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles the next year all aircraft production in Germany was shut down. Siemens-Schuckert immediately disappeared, but Siemens-Halske continued sales of the Sh.III and started development of smaller engines for the civilian market. By the mid-1920s their rotary engines were no longer in vogue, but "non-turning" versions of the same basic mechanicals led to a series of 7-cylinder radial engines, the Sh.10 through Sh.14A, delivering up to 150 hp in the 14A. The Sh.14A became a best-seller in the trainer market, and over 15,000 of all the versions were eventually built.
Siemens-Halske no longer had any competitive engines for the larger end of the market, and to address this they negotiated a license in 1929 to produce the 9-cylinder Bristol Jupiter IV. Minor changes for the German market led to the Sh.20 and Sh.21. Following the evolution of their smaller Sh.14's, the engine was then bored out to produce the 900 hp design, the Sh.22. In 1933 new engine naming was introduced by the RLM, and this design became the Sh.322, when Siemens was given the 300-block of numbers. The Sh.322 design had reliability problems and never became popular.
The company reorganized as Bramo in 1936, and continued development of what was now their own large engine. Modifying the Sh.322 with the addition of fuel injection and a new supercharger led to the Bramo 323 Fafnir, which entered production in 1937. Although rather outdated in terms of design, by this time the engine had matured into a highly reliable powerplant despite its comparatively poor fuel economy, and 5,500 were produced until the lines shut down in 1944.
In design terms the 323 was basically a dead-end with little growth potential. By the start of the war its 1,000 hp was already at the low end of the performance scale, and use was limited to transports and bombers. In order to build a 1,500 hp-class engine Bramo started development of a two-row version of the engine as the Bramo 329, mirroring similar developments at BMW who were trying to scale up their Pratt & Whitney Hornet into the two-row BMW 139. Design of both engines was well advanced in 1939 when BMW bought Bramo, and cancelled work on the 329 to concentrate on what would become the excellent BMW 801.
Realizing the two-row radial development was a risky proposition; Bramo engineers had also started developing axial-flow jet engines in 1938. They were awarded a development contract to continue work on two designs, which would later become the 109-002 and 109-003 when the RLM officially started supporting jet development. The -002 used an advanced contra-rotating compressor for added efficiency, while the -003 used a simpler compressor/stator system that remains in use in modern designs today. The -002 proved to be too complex and work on it soon ended, but the -003 showed definite promise and eventually became the BMW 003.
The company had a work camp near Monowitz producing parts for the aircraft, and known as Bobrek concentration camp. It employed ostarbeiter slave workers as well as Auschwitz prisoners in its factory. The main factory to which Brobrek was attached was a site designed to make synthetic rubber and gasoline, and it was owned by IG Farben, one of the largest chemical combines in Germany during the war. It was one of numerous Auschwitz sub-camps established by large German companies to supply armaments to the armed forces, and other companies included Krupp, Rheinmetal and AEG. They were all making not just small side arms such as pistols and machine guns but also large weapons like artillery as well as U-boat and aircraft parts.
The Bristol Jupiter is a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine that was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turned it into one of the finest engines of its era.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz ("Goldfinch") is a 1930s German two-seat biplane. An early design by Kurt Tank, it was produced by the Focke-Wulf company as a pilot training and sports flying aircraft. It was also built under license in several other countries.
The Fokker E.V was a German parasol-monoplane fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz and built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The E.V was the last Fokker design to become operational with the Luftstreitkräfte, entering service in the last months of World War I. After several fatal accidents due to wing failures, the aircraft was modified and redesignated Fokker D.VIII. Dubbed the Flying Razor by post-war pulp-fiction writers, the D.VIII had the distinction of scoring the last aerial victory of the war.
The Bramo 323 Fafnir is a nine-cylinder radial aircraft engine of the World War II era. Based heavily on Siemens/Bramo's earlier experience producing the Bristol Jupiter under licence, the Bramo 323 saw limited use.
The Siemens-Schuckert D.IV was a late-World War I fighter aircraft from Siemens-Schuckert (SSW). It reached service too late and was produced in too few numbers to have any effect on the war effort.
The Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri ("Hummingbird") is a single-seat intermeshing rotor helicopter, or synchropter, produced by Anton Flettner of Germany. According to Yves Le Bec, the Flettner Fl 282 was the world's first series production helicopter.
Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft, also referred to as LFG, was a German aircraft manufacturer during World War I. They are best known for their various "Roland" designs, notably the Roland C.II Walfisch (whale), Roland D.II haifisch (Shark) and Roland D.VI, although they also produced a number of airships and many experimental designs.
Pfalz Flugzeugwerke was a World War I German aircraft manufacturer, located at the Speyer airfield in the Palatinate. They are best known for their series of fighters, notably the Pfalz D.III and Pfalz D.XII. The company went bankrupt after the Armistice, when the French occupation forces confiscated all of the equipment, but the factory was re-used by various other companies until re-forming in 1997. Today they are a parts manufacturer referred to as PFW.
The Heinkel He 72 Kadett ("Cadet") was a German single-engine biplane trainer of the 1930s.
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The Siemens-Halske Sh.III was an 11-cylinder, air-cooled counter rotary engine developed in Germany during World War I. The engine was a development of the earlier 9-cylinder Siemens-Halske Sh.I.
The Pfalz D.VIII was a German World War I fighter aircraft.
The Siemens-Schuckert D.I was a single-seat fighter built by Siemens-Schuckert Werke in 1916. It was a German copy of the French Nieuport 17 that was obsolete by the time it was available in numbers, so that it served mainly as an advanced trainer.
The Siemens-Schuckert D.III was a German single-seat fighter built by Siemens-Schuckert Werke. The D.III was a development of the earlier Siemens-Schuckert D.IIc prototype. The D.III was an (nearly) equal-span biplane powered by a 160 hp (119 kW) Siemens-Halske Sh.III bi-rotary engine. Idflieg placed an order for 20 aircraft in December 1917, followed by a second order of 30 aircraft in February 1918.
The Siemens-Halske Sh 22 was a nine-cylinder aircraft radial engine manufactured by Siemens & Halske in Germany in the 1930s. Following the reorganization of its manufacturer and change in military nomenclature, the engine became known as the Bramo 322.
The Siemens-Schuckert E.I was a German fighter aircraft, manufactured by Siemens-Schuckert.
The Siemens-Schuckert DDr.I was a World War I German twin engine, push-pull configuration triplane fighter aircraft. Only one was built, crashing on its first flight.
The LFG Roland D.XVI, initially designated the LFG Roland E.I, was a single-seat, single-engine, parasol wing German fighter aircraft flown close to the end of World War I. Only two were built.
The Siemens-Schuckert Dr.I was a German single seat triplane fighter aircraft first flown in 1917. Its development and that of a more powerful, uncompleted variant, was abandoned after a flight test programme.
The acquisition of Bramo instantly doubled the size of BMW's aircraft division, which acquired the new name of BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH.