page_title: Daimler-Benz DB 603
section_title: Design and development
hierarchical_section_title: Daimler-Benz DB 603 / Design and development
caption_attribution_description: A German Dornier Do 217 N-2 night fighter.
context_page_description: The Daimler-Benz DB 603 engine was a German aircraft engine used during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder inverted V12 enlargement of the DB 601, which was in itself a development of the DB 600. Production of the DB 603 commenced in May 1942, and with a 44.52 litre displacement figure, was the largest displacement inverted V12 aviation engine to be produced and used in front line aircraft of the Third Reich during World War II.
  The DB 603 powered several aircraft, including the Do 217 N&M, Do 335, He 219, Me 410, BV 155 and Ta 152C.
context_section_description: The Mercedes-Benz T80 land speed record car, designed by aircraft engineer Josef Mickl with assistance from Ferdinand Porsche and top German Grand Prix racing driver Hans Stuck, incorporated the third prototype DB 603. It was set up for the land speed record run attempt to operate on an exotic fuel mix based on a 63% methanol, 16% benzene and 12% ethanol content, with minor percentages of acetone, nitrobenzene, avgas and ether. Adding to the power output was a pioneering form of the Luftwaffe's later MW 50 methanol/water injection boost, and was tuned to 3,000 PS (2,959 hp, 2,207 kW)— enough, it was believed, to propel the aerodynamic three-axle T80 up to 750 km/h on a specially-prepared, nearly 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) length stretch of the roughly north/south oriented Berlin — Halle/Leipzig, which passed close to the east side of Dessau (now part of the modern A9 Autobahn) and with the actual length's location due south of Dessau, reworked to be 25 metres (82 ft) wide with a paved-over median, for the record to be set in January 1940 during Rekord Woche (Record/Speed Week). Due to the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the T80 (nicknamed Schwarzer Vogel, "Black Bird") never raced. The DB 603 engine was removed from the vehicle for use in fighter aircraft.
  As Germany's largest displacement inverted V12 aviation powerplant in production during the war years, the DB 603 saw wide operational use as the primary engine type for many twin and multi-engined combat aircraft designs — the promising twin-engined Dornier Do 335 Pfeil prototype heavy fighter, the front-line Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse heavy fighter and Heinkel He 219 Uhu twin-engined night fighter were all designed for DB 603 power. The Dornier Do 217M and -N medium bomber and night fighter subtypes powered by inline engines, and the enormous sixty-metre wingspan, six-engined Blohm & Voss BV 238 flying boat prototype, essentially had their DB 603 powerplants installed within  what appeared to be the same unitized complete engine/cowl/radiator assembly as a complete unit-replaceable "power system" for twin and multi-engined aircraft — this particular design featured a "chin"-style radiator installation directly beneath the crankcase, and the oil cooler placed on the dorsal portion of the installation for the earlier examples, as the BV 238 had no visible upper-cowl openings for engine cooling of any sort for its half-dozen unitized DB 603s.  The He 219 airframe pioneered what is believed to be a Heinkel-specific Kraftei unitized engine package for the DB 603 engine using a well-streamlined annular radiator set for primary engine cooling between the propeller and its reduction gear housing with a nearly-cylindrical cowl behind it, pierced only by the twin rows of six exhaust stacks, one row per side. The characteristic portside-cowl supercharger intake for Daimler-Benz inverted V12s was usually accommodated away from the nacelle's sheetmetal itself for the Heinkel/DB 603 unitized engine package, most often within the airframe's wing panel design.  The same Kraftei packaging for the He 219 was also used for powering the four-prototype He 177B strategic bomber series, and with an added turbocharger in each nacelle, the six ordered (two completed) prototypes of Heinkel's He 274 high-altitude strategic bomber project.
caption: A Do 217N night fighter with Kraftei-format DB 603s fitted
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