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What we know today as WardsAuto magazine has been around about as long as there's been an auto industry to report on. They do a monthly look-back at the archives to see what was news in the same month over the decades, and it's always fun to see Packard mentioned! Here are a couple of gems from the May issue -- enjoy!

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WardsAuto Flashback - May 2016

70 Years Ago (May 1946): Packard Sees Turbines

The president of Packard Motors says he foresees gas turbine engines powering cars within 10 to 15 years. However, analysts are skeptical of that timeframe given the difficulties that need to be overcome to make the engine suitable for automotive use. Turbines currently used in aircraft and power generation applications are too bulky and inefficient for use in cars, necessitating a new approach. High rotational speeds, high temperatures and the need for extremely close tolerances are among the problems that must be overcome.

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60 Years Ago (April 1956): More Electric Wipers

A Ward's survey shows factory installations of electric windshield wipers and windshield washers in first-quarter 1956 reached 24.8% and 46.4%, respectively, of industry output. Electric wipers are standard across the board at Chrysler, where all Chrysler-brand and De Soto models come with variable speed units, Dodge and Plymouth have standard single-speed wipers with variable-speed units an option. Neither Ford nor American Motors offer electric wipers. The advantage of electric wipers is they operate at uniform speeds regardless of the throttle position, whereas vacuum wipers tend to slowdown and/or stop the more the throttle is opened and available manifold vacuum is reduced. At the same time, the survey shows General Motors and Packard installed washers on just over 50% of January-March output compared with 45% at Ford, 33% at Chrysler and 22% at AMC. The windshield washer rates include both manual and electrically operated units.

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Actually, this was a very, very good prediction. No matter what the naysayers had to groan about. Eventually all of these issues were overcome. AND... had Packard remained in business, I guarantee you, they would have been one of the first car companies in production with a gas turbine car.

Many forget or never knew that Packard was producing J-47 jet aircraft engines after WWII. The technology that went into design and production of these engines was very closely related to gas turbines.

Folks who talk about gas turbines and high heat apparently never were aware of a regenerative system developed by George Huebner and Chrysler. And high speeds of turning parts? Turbochargers that are in many of our conventional cars since the 1980s sometimes spin faster or as fast as gas turbines were in those days... and they do it on bearings of oil! And their spin rates are not calculated in minutes (RPM) but in seconds (RPS). A turbine made today would be incredible... and run on anything that could flow through a pipe and combust with air.

AND... when Chrysler stepped up and got into automotive gas turbines in the flesh in 1954, they made (actually Ghia-the same folks who built Predictor did) 55 test cars in the early 1960s and were going to go limited production in 1966 with a car that ultimately became the Dodge Charger (it was originally goring to be called "Turbinecharger"). There will be a bit about this in the upcoming book on Creative Industries of Detroit.

Now. Jump back to Packard who essentially went out of business (with all due respect to Studebaker) at the end of 1956. Guess where some of those Packard jet engine people went when this happened?

You can rest assured that IF Packard had the financial resources and had continued as a strong company, you can bet there would have been Packard gas turbine cars. And they would have been every bit as magnificent as the original Twin-6 Packards.