(* 9 February 1846 ; + 29 December 1929) was an early engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was entitled “king of constructors” in France, which then conctituted the centre for car production. From the late 19th century on Willhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler developed light, high-speed internal combustion engines suitable for land, water and air use. These were fitted to the world's first motorcycle, motorboat, and later, to the Mercedes model. Maybach rose to become technical director of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, also known as DMG (Daimler Motor Company), but did not get along with the chairmen. Therefore Maybach left DMG in 1907 to found Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH together with his son Karl in 1909, manufacturing Zeppelin engines. After the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 the company started producing large luxury vehicles, branded as Maybach. They continued until the company joined the German war effort in 1940, leaving automotive production and instead building engines for the Panzer and Tiger tanks. In 1998 Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler Corporation to become DaimlerChrysler. The new company revived the Maybach brand name as a luxury make in 2002. At only nineteen years old, he was a qualified designer, working on stationary engines and calling the attention of his workshop manager, Gottlieb Daimler. Daimler was a workaholic industrial designer then twenty-nine years old who had adopted Maybach as his main assistant. The Grandfather's Clock engine (1885) By the end of 1885, Maybach and Daimler developed their first engine which is regarded as a precursor to all modern petrol engines. It featured: single horizontal cylinder, air cooling, large cast iron flywheel, revolutionary hot tube ignition, exhaust valve controlled by a camshaft allowing high speeds, a speed of 600 rpm In 1885, they also created the first carburetor allowing evaporated gasoline to mix with air to allow its efficient use as fuel . It was used that year on a larger, but still compact version of the engine, now with a vertical cylinder Daimler named it the Grandfather Clock because of its resemblance to an old pendulum clock. In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version into a wooden bicycle, creating the first motorcycle, (patent 36-423 - Vehicle with gas or petroleum engine) and Maybach drove it 3 kilometers from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, reaching 7.5 mph (12 km/h). It became known as the Reitwagen. By 1887 they were licensing their first patents abroad, and Maybach represented the company at the great Paris' World Design Exhibition (1886 to 1889). First Daimler-Maybach automobile (1889) In 1889 Daimler and Maybach built their first automobile to be designed in its entirety rather than an adaptation of a stagecoach. It was launched by both inventors in Paris in October 1889.. Daimler-Mercedes engine of 1900 In 1900 Maybach designed a completely new kind of car inspired by racing which upon its release in 1902 was called the Mercedes 35 hp. It featured: • long wheelbase • wide track • low height • unheard-of power from its 35 hp engine allowing it to reach 40 mph (64,4 km/h). Its engine was named Daimler-Mercedes after Mercedes Jellinek, the ten year old daughter of Emil Jellinek, who was a successful Austrian dealer and racing driver on the French Riviera and an admirerer of Maybach's work. Jellinek had promised to buy a large shipment, of 36 automobiles, for 550,000 Goldmark if Maybach could design a race car for with regard to his demands. Zeppelin engines (1908) In the year 1900, Maybach had had his first contact with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who sought to improve the engines of the Zeppelin-LZ1 airship. Maybach built some engines for him based on sketches of a 150 hp unit created by his son, Karl, while at DMG. In 1908, after an emergency landing of the LZ4 had failed, the Germans spontaneously donated 6.25 million Goldmark thereby allowing for Count Zeppelin to found the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH company, the builder of Zeppelin Airships. Maybach had to hold off joining the new company for a while as he was still in litigation with DMG so Karl took his place. On 23 March 1909, a deal was finally signed, creating an engine subsidiary to Luftschiffbau Zeppelin at Bissingen/Enz, in Württemberg. Wilhelm Maybach was Technical Assistant and Karl was Technical Manager. Their first designs reached 20 m/s (72000 m/h - 72 km/h or 0.0124742 mps (miles/seconds) - 44.73873 mph). Wilhelm Maybach moved the company to Friedrichshafen and renamed it Luftfahrzeug-Motoren-GmbH with father and son holding 20% of the shares including an arrangement for Karl to inherit. They kept supplying Zeppelin, but worked on other airship engines too. In 1912, the company finally adopted the name Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH (Maybach engine construction company). Maybach automobiles (1922) After the first world war, the Versailles Treaty of 1919 prohibited airship production in Germany. Thus Maybach had to turn to making high-speed diesel engines for naval and railroad use as well as petrol engines for automobiles. Many small automakers in Germany built their own engines for cost reasons. Only the Dutch Spyker company was interested in taking Maybach engines. Wilhelm Maybach turned down the contract because of unpleasant conditions. Instead, he decided to build complete automobiles and from 1921, the factory began to produce Maybach limousines. Ironically, neither Wilhelm nor Karl owned a Maybach automobile. In fact, the frugal Wilhelm never even owned a car! By 1924 DMG was suffering from the post war economic crisis and under pressure from the banks DMG resulted in a merger with Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik Mannheim in 1926 forming Daimler-Benz AG. Wilhelm Maybach died at the age of 83 in Stuttgart on 29 December 1929. Source: Wikipedia