Re: Packard minesweeper engines

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/8/31 10:09:06

Plus, the Packard-built V-12 is a big plus!


iirc, that film says that the 4M-2500 was derived from the Liberty, an example of leveraging development work that had been done on the government's dime.

If they had done what Ford did at Willow Run,

I need to clarify that. What I ment was that, after building Willow Run on the government's dime, Ford could have bought it for 20 cents on the dollar.

Studebaker did take advantage of plant availability after the war.

As Studie's main factory complex was occupied building deuce and a halfs and Weasels, when the company was given a contract to build aircraft engines, the government built the Chippewa Ave plant for them. After the war, Studie bought Chippewa for peanuts and happily churned civi trucks and M-35s out of there through the 40s and 50s. Looking at the Google satellite view today, you can still see the test track where they checked out the new trucks.

Packard could have done the same thing, rather than scatter the wartime expansion among several small buildings.