Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1917-10-14
INSIDE STORY Of HOW ALL AMERICAN
AVIATION ENGINE CAME T0bE BUILT

an automobile trade journal, when
suddenly headline caught his eye:
'@Thirty-seven Kinds of aircraft en-
gines in England. forty six in France"
In a flash he saw why England and
France were failing 10 surpass Ger
many in airplane output. and The line
inc United States must follow
Suppose, he thought, an automo-
ollie company was building 81 or 46
types oil engines, what cnance would
II nave. ii wouldn't last month
we must get at the best features pro-
dlced -to-date Dy these 81 British
Ilu as French tuiiaers, weld them
into 4 single engine, concentrate on ii,
and imp owe It. And we have got 10
hurry"
He left the table on the jump aad
went to see Alvan Macauiey, presi-
Gent of his company. 1t looked right
to Macauley, but he is older and more
conservative. He urged a long dis
lance conversati ton with Howard Cof-
fin Of the aircraft production board:
but there was only half an. hoar 10.
catch the Washington train and Vim
cent wouldn't wait
AS soon as he reached washington
/ he conferred with Coffin, Deeds and
! Naldron Of the aircraft board and
soon had them with him. They told
him TO go to it. and offered help.
Deeds suggested to meet f. J. Han
of the Hall-Scott Motor Co.. who had
just left Washington after confer
ence with the aircraft board N which
he had demonstrated his great tech
nical knowledge. Vincent caught Hail,
whom he never met, at Cleveland. and
thus was formed the Vincent-H Hall
combination which worked out the
| An-American motor. .
Meantime Major Souther of the sig
nal corps, with the aid of British and
French aviation experts. rounded up
all available information on foreign
engines. s
With this Vincent and Hall locked
themselves into a hotel suite. They
dug through all the foreign eAgsne
models. French. English, Italian and
German, picked out part by part the
best Observation-Disclosures best hero.
Rolls-Royce there, Hispano- Suiza FOL
this, Caproni for that. But through
all ran the underlying conviction
The Lorian Dietrich type just devel-
oped in France is the coming motor. -
SO it was settled on as the basis
By May 81. just four days after the
idea came to Vincent. their twenty
hour-a day work resulted in a tenta-
tive report for the aircraft board en-
bodying sketches That night they
net Amy and navy officers and the
aircraft board in, General Squier's Of
flee, where they We're told to go ahead
with working drawings. They wired
for two good layout men, who ar
rived Friday, June /. and with Hall
and Vincent worked straight en-
through until Monday afternoon-6S
hours on a stretch
On June they were back before
the joint army navy aircraft board
conference, and this time they got
their final orders: Go to it-build 10
sample engines in the. shortest pos
sible time" The first engine. was
promised within seven weeks
How the Packard company WAS
persuaded to give up its motion Of
making the Packard aviation engiis
rs famous IN the United States as the
Mercedes is in Germany, and concen-
ttatc on the AllAmerican moi
which will bear the makers nam"
how the wooder model was finish
in just three and a half days; L iie.ss.
stnie 30 manufactures we're prs3r-
ticaliy commandeered 10 lush the
parts Of the engine: how the exne-i
weic brought into conference e y
feet the standardization; how diaiss-
men and mechanics, volunteered %
work night and day. siundlvs and
holidays: how pugnacious Packard
traffic manager rode IN tho ! agg lst
car with tho engine from Detroit 10
Washington and hro'2hf il through il.
20 hours ~ smashing raillo"d RI
ali these arc vitality into! est ne
stories.
y; Put the big story is that on July >
last four weeks aftcrthc order .'fn
ahead the finished engine was at
the bureau Of standards in Washing
ton ready for its first tests.