Evening star., 1941-01-29
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.
Star Stan Correspondent.


DETROIT, Mich. Jan. 30.-1t Is
fortunate for American and British
air defense that Packard Motor Co.
has for some years been engaged in
the development of lightweight,
powerful marine engine, now being
put into production for the Navy's
growing mosquito fleet"
The marine engine project here
Is serving as training ground and
intermediate stage between auto
mobile and aircraft production and
will greatly speed up the procure
ment of personnel and beginning
of production of 5000 Rolls Royce
Merlin aircraft engines, now on con-
tract for the United States and
England.
Although the marine engine Is
being produced by the combination
of hand and machine methods
which is necessitated by the fact
only 100 engines are on order, the
project is regarded as in invaluable
training school and all of the 1900
workers who will build Rolls Royce
aircraft engines will benefit from
the marine engine program.
Engine Weight Reduced.
Weight in the marine engine has
been reduced to aircraft standards
and the engine was designed for
possible emergency conversion into
an airplane engine. 1t delivers 1850
horsepower for weight of only
1900 pounds and is built with air.
craft engine materials and precision.
Approximately 300 of the marine
engines have been built and de-
livered and the first squadron of
Navy P T-3 patrol-torpedo boats
has been organized at New York
and part of the squadron now is at
the Washington Navy Yard en- route
to the Caribbean on a shake-down
cruise.
These tremendously fast little
boat-with a known speed of go
knots in still water and a maximum
emergency speed Of much more,
how much is a Navy secret-are part
of a $4,000 900 Navy program in
tended to show that the United
States can build its own mosquito
feet in competition with the best
afloat in Europe.
Three Buildings Under Way.
Three buildings, providing sbout
a half million feet of floor space,
two Of them connected by a tunnel
under a railroad yard. are being
built to house the Rolls-Royce en-
gine production. AS much more
floor space will be taken over in
the existing Packard automobile
plant. The new buildings will be
completed by April under a s62 2,000,-
900 plant and tooling program.
Machinery and tools are on order
and deliveries are expected to be
completed soon after the floor space
is ready for their installation.
In the meantime, 600 Packard ex-
perts are at work building nine OF
the Rolls-Royce engines by hand
and machine methods as an expert
mental project to test American con-
struction methods on this, British
design. These nine engines will be
subjected to the most rigid tests
before quantity production of the
5000 engines begins. The first pro-
duction engines are expected to roll
off the new Packard production line
next July. Production probably will
begin at the rate of about six en-
gines day and will reach a peak
rate of 800 a month by late fall or
early winter.
World War Factory Razed.
In clearing the way for the new
construction Packard tore down its
World War factory in which it
manufactured the famous Liberty
engine. BY a coincidence, on the
same day that ground was broken
for the new Detroit plant, the
Packard plant in London was
bombed by Nazi aviators.
As to actual progress on the Rolls
Royce project: The heat-treating
and machine shop buildings are 66
per cent finished; the main assem-
bly, plant is so per cent completed:
the connecting tunnel is finished;
the test-teardown. final assembly
and shipping plant building is 80
per cent completed. and all of the
engineering work on modification of
the Rolls Royce engine design to
adapt 1t to American production
methods has been finished. All
machinery and tools are on order.
600 men have been trained and
others are in training and other
necessary steps have been taken to
clear the way for what may be
the largest aviation project yet as
signed to an American automobile
plant. In addition to the 5000 en-
gines on order for England and
5000 for the United States, these
two countries have reserved the
right to call on Packard for an addi-
tional 10000 engines, or 10000 in
all