Ever wonder what happened to the Porsche PFM?

[stlrj]

Seems it got too expensive and complicated

http://www.seqair.com/Other/PFM/PorschePFM.html


Joe

[Doug Zielke]

The PFM motor was being supplied exclusively to Mooney Aviation. A mistake. Porsche should have marketed it to Cessna, and it probably would have had enough sales volume to survive. It was also introduced at a time when light aviation sales were in a "tail-spin".

There was a Mooney around the municipal airport here at one time. I rent aa old hanger where I store my toys. I was working on a project one afternoon, when the Mooney guy came by to have a peek. We then walked over to his hanger, and he showed me the Porsche-engined plane. Definite 911-type motor resemblance.

I guess he must have sold it, as it has not been at the airport for years.

------------------
'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
The Blue Bomber's Website

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

It was an interesting engine to fly. The neatest thing about it was that it had a single-lever power control, much nicer to use than the standard throttle/prop/mixture quadrant. At the time I flew it, I knew a Mooney VP and engineer, Roy Lopresti, who told me that one of the problems Mooney faced was that the Germans refused to believe that a bunch of Texans knew the slightest thing about air-cooled engines. Despite the fact that Mooney told Porsche that they were going to suffer a huge cooling-drag deficit, with the engine and installation that they planned, the Germans looked down their noses at the rude boys and went right ahead anyway. The result was that they had to tune the engine for 212 hp to simply equal the performance of a vastly cheaper 200-hp Lycoming or Continental in the same airplane. The result: very few buyers had any interest in paying an enormous premium for no gain in performance, just to have the Porsche logo, a very smooth engine, and the admittedly nice single-lever power control. And Porsche _was_ trying to work with Cessna. They had a PFM in a Skylane, but Cessna declined to use the thing.

Stephan

[Doug Zielke]

Interesting, Stephan. I guess it goes to show what stubborn bastards Germans can be.

And a bit of PFM 3200 trivia....
Did you know a pair or pilots flew it around the World in 1985?





I might add the local fellow I mentioned, was very proud of his P-M airplane. Just like we are about our cars...even though we know other cars may be faster, or better value etc.

------------------
'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
The Blue Bomber's Website

[Early_S_Man]

Too bad Mooney didn't donate a couple of engines to the Voyager project ... would have been great publicity!

------------------
Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

[stlrj]

"We have to give these guys a tip of the hat for persistence. Over the last decade, electronic engine controls haven't exactly sparked a buyer stampede. Much as we hate to dredge up ancient history, the ill-fated Porsche Mooney PFM comes first to mind.

Introduced in 1988, the PFM was a giant boulder tossed into the ripple-free, technological calm of GA. And it sank just about as fast. The PFM was powered by a six-cylinder, air-cooled engine with automotive-style electronic ignition, fuel injection, autoleaning, automatic cooling control and-what was supposed to be the irresistible marketing lure-a single power lever.

It worked; push the throttle forward to go fast, pull it back to slow down. No prop, no mixture and no worries about shock cooling. Even though it was a bit slower than the 201, owners loved the airplane. Unfortunately, there weren't many of them. Only 41 PFMs were sold, a poor sales history due in part to the $60,000 price premium over the 201 and a flat GA market. Thanks to slow sales and money squabbles with Mooney, Porsche grew disenchanted and bailed out of the project. To its credit, it has continued to support the engine..."

http://www.avweb.com/articles/fadecfan.html

[widebody911]

There was one of these engines on ebay a while back. The seller had some cock-and-bull story about it being a top-secret umpteen-hundred HP engine he bought at a garage sale, yada yada yada.

[fbarrett]

I was lucky enough to be at the '87 and '88 Parades and got rides in the Mooney M20L and the Cessna high-wing prototype that Porsche brought to those events. That was partly why I later found an earlier Porsche 678/4 four-cylinder aircraft engine and restored it, but that's a whole 'nother story.

[ed mayo]

In addition to the above reasons once Peter Schutz left, the project had no real supporters. It had sound totally different from your average continental/Lycoming, more like a P-51.