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Three: Aircraft Engines and Propellers
- Wayne State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
t his chapter will highlight the work of a half-dozen automakers in producing two significant aircraft components: engines and propellers. The history of the production of these key components is largely unknown, although vital to the aircraft industry. Because they are not very sexy, aircraft engines and propellers have not generated the interest that fighter and bomber aircraft have. Because no single company manufactured these components, their production is barely mentioned in aircraft histories. American industry produced approximately 300,000 military aircraft and 802,161 aircraft engines in 1940–45. The U.S. Army Air Force purchased 81 percent of the aircraft engines produced during the war and the U.S. Navy bought most of the rest. The automobile industry produced 56 percent of all the aircraft engines built for the military. In August 1944, when production reached its highest level, automobile companies produced more than two-thirds of all the aircraft engines and three-quarters of the engines for use in combat aircraft. There was no simple transition from making automobile engines to manufacturing aircraft engines. The latter were much larger and more complex than any engine the automakers had previously manufactured. They were typically air-cooled engines using a radial design and upward of eighteen cylinders. The largest produced 2,200 horsepower, dwarfing any automotive or truck engine. North American industry also produced 708,268 propellers over the course of the war, and automobile manufacturers accounted for 36 percent of the total.1 three Aircraft Engines and Propellers AircrAft engines AnD propellers 45 There were only three significant manufacturers of aircraft engines before the war: the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, operating an engine plant in Patterson, New Jersey; the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of United Aircraft Corporation in East Hartford, Connecticut; and the Allison Division of General Motors Corporation , with a plant near Indianapolis. The government decided to concentrate production on the existing (and proven) air-cooled radial engines already developed by Wright and Pratt & Whitney. Allison had developed a liquid-cooled engine that was in full production in 1940, and the Packard Motor Car Company produced liquidcooled Rolls-Royce Merlin engines a year later. The British had great success with the Merlin engines, but the U.S. Army Air Corps preferred air-cooled radial designs. They believed the radial engines were less vulnerable in battle, were more durable, and were easier to service and repair.2 Wright preferred to manage the final assembly of its engines and built huge branch plants near Cincinnati and at Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, to supplement production at its main factory in Patterson. In November 1940, at the insistence of the Army Air Force, Wright licensed the Studebaker Corporation to manufacture one of its engines in South Bend, Indiana. Wright granted its only other license to the Dodge Division of the Chrysler Corporation to build engines for the B-29 at its Dodge-Chicago plant. Licensees accounted for only 37 percent of the 223,036 Wright engines made between July 1940 and August 1945. Studebaker, with total production of 63,789 engines for the B-17 Flying Fortress, and Dodge-Chicago, with 18,349 engines for the B-29 Superfortress, accounted for virtually all of the Wright engines manufactured under license. As a result of Wright’s insistence on managing most of its production, the company’s management was spread thin and it struggled to satisfy all its contracts.3 Pratt & Whitney in contrast licensed production of its engines to a wide range of manufacturers while expanding its East Hartford plant and operating a branch plant in Kansas City. Licensees included Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, Nash, Continental Motors, and the Jacobs Aircraft Engine Company. Over the course of the war, Pratt & Whitney produced 355,985 engines, with licensees accounting for 60 percent of the total. The most important licensees were Buick, which produced 74,198 engines in Melrose Park, Illinois; Chevrolet, which turned out 60,766 engines at its Tonawanda, New york, factory; and Ford, which manufactured 57,178 engines at its River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The Allison Division of General Motors also produced 69,305 liquid-cooled engines during the war, and Packard completed 54,714 Rolls-Royce Merlin liquid-cooled engines. Eight additional manufacturers produced another 100,390 smaller engines producing less than 500 horsepower each.4 Each automobile company that manufactured aircraft engines faced a unique set [3.81.79.135] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:46 GMT) 46 chApter three of circumstances and challenges, and it...