In 1918, in WWI an aviation engine bearing the Opel brand was captured in France and it turned out to work in a very remarkable way. It is said that it had the appearance of an upright in-line, 6-cylinder Mercedes, and all very conventional.

"Logos, old and modern"

“Opel III”

-Later it is known that Opel built the Argus III under license.

“Opel 180 CV”

-This engine was built by Adam Opel Motorenwerke of Rüsselsheim and known as Type III, 180 hp.

-Curiously it had four cast legs in the crankcase, to fit it on the ground without damaging parts of the oil pump, etc.

-This engine raised its power to 190 hp by increasing the revs from 1,400 to 1,600 rpm. It had paired cylinders.

-Since 1898 Opel has mainly been active in the automotive industry.

-After the end of the First World War, an Opel engine was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London.

"Opel 6-cylinder engine"

-This particular engine was captured from a German plane. Its power is 180 CV.

-The exhaust manifolds are nice and interesting.

-But curiously there were some trials, between 1927 and 1930 through Fritz Von Opel's hobby of propelling vehicles and airplanes with solid fuel rocket engines.

"Opel Trials"

The collaboration between researcher Max Valier and rocket specialist Sander together with the brothers Wilhelm, Heinrich and Fritz von Opel, made it possible to do the first practical tests of rockets on vehicles as early as 1927.

A year after the first runs on the Opel factory test track they tested the Rak 2 car at the Avus circuit in Berlin .

-With 24 rockets it reached 200 km/hr. Aircraft tests continued.

“Opel Rak 1”

-In June 1928 the "Ente" (duck) flew and then the Rak 1. The first one with a pair of rockets of 20 Kgf thrust that propelled it for 20 seconds

-The Rak 1 (Raketen's Rak = Rocket) with 16 Sander rockets, fired sequentially, already gave 400 Kgf reaching 240 Km/hr. The Rak 3 flew in May 1930.

-The Eisfeld firm (Pulver-und-Pyrotechnische Fabrik) under the direction of Professor Meyer-Hellige, provided the material for these tests.

-Opel also made some Jumo-004A/O engines.

-Currently, the Ranger is based on a design of the French Dieselis (Isuzu) (see).

-The heart of the engine is an Opel Y17DT from the Astra with turbo and intercooler.

“Opel-Ranger”

-With a 1: 1.67 reduction, it gives 90 HP at 4,400 rpm. The fuel is diesel gas-oil or Jet A-1 with additives.

From Appendix A7/6: Mr. (Herr) Sander was financed by Fritz Von Opel, owner of the Opel car factory and also a manufacturer of aircraft engines at certain times.

-The first test on a car was made with a battery of 12 gunpowder rockets.

“Opel-Sander Rakete”

-Multiple tests were carried out like the one we see below, leaving a wisp of white smoke.

"Tests with the Opel car"

-The Opel Rak 2, also Sander's, had 24 gunpowder rockets this time. It had lateral wings to push the vehicle onto the ground.

-We have photographs showing the wings and also the engine body and mechanisms.

“Testing the Opel Rak2”

"Opel Rak2 rocket battery"

-From the same Opel in Germany we received the photograph of this motorcycle with attached gunpowder rocket engines.

"Good looking rocket bike"

-Experiences with land vehicles were transferred to air, such as gliders.

"Fritz Von Opel, at the controls of a rocket glider"

-As we can see from the letters next to the fuselage, this device was also made with the collaboration of Sander.

"Test with fired engines"

From Appendix 7: We retrieved an advertisement with the Opel 60/70 HP engine model. It was built around 1910 and maybe until 1919.

"Four-cylinder Opel ad"

-It is a four cylinder engine. The ad photo may have been taken from the same engine outside the factory on a break-in bench.

"Photo of the same 4-cylinder engine in Rüsselsheim"