Editing Wilhelm Maybach (section)

==Zeppelin engines (1908)==
[[File:LZ4 after Echterdingen disaster.jpg|thumb|213px|Wreckage of ''LZ4'']]
In 1900, Maybach 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&nbsp;hp unit created by his son, Karl, while at DMG.

In 1908, Count Zeppelin attempted to sell his models ''LZ3'' and ''LZ4'' to the government. On 5 August, ''LZ4'' exploded against a row of trees after attempting an emergency landing when its engines failed. This was far from being the end for the airship project as 6.25&nbsp;million goldmarks were raised in a donation campaign after the accident. Count Zeppelin founded the [[Luftschiffbau Zeppelin]] GmbH, the company that built the 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 [[Bietigheim-Bissingen|Bissingen]]/Enz, in [[Württemberg]]. Wilhelm Maybach was Technical Assistant and Karl was Technical Manager. Their first designs reached 72&nbsp;km/h (45&nbsp;mph).

Wilhelm Maybach moved his company to [[Friedrichshafen]] and renamed it ''Luftfahrzeug-Motoren-GmbH''. Karl and Wilhem held 20% of the shares with an arrangement for Karl to inherit. They kept supplying ''Zeppelin'', but worked on other airship engines too. In 1912, the company adopted the name Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH (Maybach Engine Construction Company). In 1916, they developed a 160&nbsp;hp aircraft engine which sold 2000 units before the end of [[World War I]]. In 1916, Wilhelm Maybach was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Technical [[University of Stuttgart]].