The official beginning of the Packard diesel engine can be traced to a
license agreement dated August 18, 1927, between Alvan Macauley,
president of the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and
Dipl. Ing. Hermann I. A. Dorner, a diesel engine inventor of Hanover,
Germany.[1] Before the agreement was drawn up, Capt. Lionel M. Woolson,
chief aeronautical engineer for Packard, tested an air-cooled and a
water-cooled diesel that Dorner had designed and built in Germany.[2]
Both engines attained the then high revolutions per minute of 2000 and
proved efficient and durable. They demonstrated the practicability of
Dorner's patented "solid" type of fuel injection which formed the basis
of the Packard diesel's design.[3] Using elements from Dorner's engines,
Woolson and Dorner designed the Packard diesel with the help of Packard
engineers and Dorner's assistant, Adolph Widmann. Woolson was
responsible for the weight-saving features, and Dorner for the
combustion system.
The historic first flight took place on September 19, 1928, at the
Packard proving grounds in Utica, Michigan, just a year and a month from
the day Dorner agreed to join the Packard team. Woolson and Walter E.
Lees, Packard's chief test pilot, used a Stinson SM-1DX "Detroiter." The
flight was so successful, and later tests were so encouraging, that
Packard built a $650,000 plant during the first half of 1929 solely for
the production of its diesel engine. The factory was designed to employ
more than 600 men, and 500 engines a month were to have been
manufactured by July 1929.[4]
[Illustration: Figure 3.--Alvan Macauley (left), President of the
Packard Motor Car Co. and Col. Charles A. Lindbergh with the original
Packard diesel-powered Stinson "Detroiter" in the background, 1929.
(Smithsonian photo A48319D.)]
The engine's first cross-country flight was accomplished on May 13,
1929, when Lees flew the Stinson SM-1DX "Detroiter" from Detroit,
Michigan, to Norfolk, Virginia, carrying Woolson to the annual field day
of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field. The
700-mile trip was flown in 6-1/2 hours, and the cost of the fuel
consumed was $4.68. Had the airplane been powered with a comparable
gasoline engine, the fuel cost would have been about 5 times as
great.[5] On March 9, 1930, using the same airplane and engine, Lees and
Woolson flew from Detroit, Michigan, to Miami, Florida, a distance of
1100 miles in 10 hours and 15 minutes with a fuel cost of $8.50. The
production engine, slightly refined from the original, received the
first approved type certificate issued for any diesel aircraft engine on
March 6, 1930. The Department of Commerce granted certificate no. 43
after the Packard Company had ground- and flight-tested this type of
engine for approximately 338,000 hp hr, or about 1500 hr of
operation.[6]
[Illustration: Figure 4.--Dipl. Ing. Hermann I. A. Dorner, 1930. German
diesel engine designer, was responsible for the Packard DR-980 aircraft
engine. (Smithsonian photo A48645.)]
[Illustration: Figure 5.--Capt. Lionel M. Woolson, 1931. Chief
Aeronautical Engineer, Packard Motor Car Co. Designer of Packard DR-980
diesel engine. (Smithsonian photo A48645A.)]
One of the early production versions powered a Bellanca "Pacemaker"
which was piloted by Lees and his assistant Frederic A. Brossy to a
world's nonrefueling heavier-than-air duration record. The flight
lasted for 84 hours, 33 minutes from May 25 through 28, 1931, over
Jacksonville, Florida. This event was so important that it was the basis
of the following editorial, published in the July 1931 issue of
_Aviation_,[7] which summarizes so well the progress made by the diesel
engine over a 3-year period and the hope held for its future:
A RECORD CROSSES THE ATLANTIC--The Diesel engine took its first
step toward acceptance as a powerplant for heavier-than-air craft
when, in the summer of 1928, a diesel-powered machine first flew.
The second step was made at the 1930 Detroit show, when the engine
went on commercial sale. The third was accomplished last month,
when a plane with a compression-ignition engine using furnace oil
as a fuel circled over the beaches around Jacksonville for 84 hours
and inscribed its performance upon the books as a world's
record--the longest flight ever made without intermediate
refueling.
With the passing of the refueling-duration excitement, and with the
apparent decision to allow that record to stand permanently at its
present level, trials for straight time in the air without
replenishment of supplies begin to regain a proper degree of
appreciation. No other record, unless it be some of those for speed
with substantial dead loads, is of such importance as the non-stop
distance and duration marks. No other has such bearing upon
precisely those qualities of aerodynamic efficiency, fuel economy,
and reliability of airplane and powerplant that most affect
commercial usefulness. It is more than three years since the
duration record left American shores, and it has been more than
doubled in that time. Its return is very welcome.
It is doubly welcome for being made with a fundamentally new type
of engine. The diesel principle is not a commercial monopoly. It is
open to anyone. Already two different designs in America, and one
or two in Europe, have been in the air. For certain purposes, at
least, it seems reasonable to expect that its special advantages
will bring it into widespread use. Every practical demonstration of
the progress of the diesel toward realizing its theoretical
possibilities in the air as it has realized them on the land and at
sea is a bit of progress toward better and more economical
commercial flying, and so benefits the whole industry. The fourth,
and next, main element in the demonstration will be provided when
diesels go into regular service on some well-known transport line
as standard equipment, and the accumulation of data on performance
under normal service conditions begins. We believe that that will
happen before the end of 1932.
Many men, from Dr. Rudolf Diesel to Walter Lees and Frederic
Brossy, have had direct or indirect hands in the making of this
record. The greatest of all contributions was that of Lionel M.
Woolson, who created the engine and flew with it in every test and
brought it through its early troubles to the point of readiness for
the commercial market. The flight that lasted four days and three
nights is his memorial, quite as much as is the bronze plaque
unveiled last April in the Detroit show hangar.
[Illustration: Figure 6.--Stinson SM-1DX "Detroiter." This airplane,
powered with original Packard DR-980 diesel engine, made the world's
first diesel-powered flight on September 19, 1928. (Photo courtesy of
Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.)]
[Illustration: Figure 7.--Packard-Bellanca "Pacemaker." This airplane,
powered by a Packard DR-980 diesel, holds the world's record for
nonrefueling, heavier-than-air aircraft duration flight. The flight
lasted 84 hours, 33 minutes, 1-1/4 seconds, and was completed on May 28,
1931, Jacksonville, Florida. (Smithsonian photo A48446B.)]
[Illustration: Figure 8.--Verville "Air Coach," October 1930.
(Smithsonian photo A48844.)]
[Illustration: Figure 9.--Packard-Bellanca "Pacemaker" owned by
Transamerican Airlines Corporation and used by Parker D. Cramer, pilot,
and Oliver L. Paquette, radio operator, in their flight from Detroit,
Michigan, to Lerwick, Shetland Islands, summer 1931. (Smithsonian photo
A200.)]
[Illustration: Figure 10.--Ford 11-AT-1 Trimotor, 1930, with 3 Packard
225-hp DR-980 diesel engines. Note special bracing for the outboard
nacelles. (Smithsonian photo A48311B.)]
[Illustration: Figure 11.--Towle TA-3 Flying Boat, 1930, with 2 Packard
225-hp DR-980 diesel engines. (Smithsonian photo A48319.)]
[Illustration: Figure 12.--Stewart M-2 Monoplane, 1930, with 2 Packard
225-hp DR-980 diesel engines. (Smithsonian photo A48319C.)]
[Illustration: Figure 13.--Consolidated XPT-8A, 1930. This is a
Consolidated PT-3A powered by a DR-980 Packard diesel. (Smithsonian
photo A48319E.)]
The Robert J. Collier Trophy, America's highest aviation award, was won
by the Packard Motor Car Company in 1931 for its development of the
diesel engine. The formal presentation was made at the White House,
March 31, 1932, by President Hoover on behalf of the National Aeronautic
Association. Alvan Macauley, president of the Packard Motor Car Company,
accepted the trophy, saying: "We do not claim, Mr. President, that we
have reached the final development even though our diesel aircraft
engine is an accomplished fact and we have the pioneer's joy of knowing
that we have successfully accomplished what had not been done
before...."[8] The amazing early success of the Packard diesel is
illustrated by the following chronological summary:
1927--License agreement signed between Alvan Macauley and Hermann
I. A. Dorner to permit designing of the engine.
1928--First flight of a diesel-powered airplane accomplished.
1929--First cross-country flights accomplished.
1930--Packard diesels were sold on the commercial market and were
used to power airplanes manufactured by a dozen different American
companies.
1931--World's official duration record for nonrefueled
heavier-than-air flight. First flight across the Atlantic by a
diesel-powered airplane.
1932--Packard diesels tested successfully in the Goodyear nonrigid
airship _Defender_.[9] Official American altitude record for
diesel-powered airplanes established (this record still stands).
In spite of this promising record, the project died in 1933. The
December 1950 issue of _Pegasus_ gave two reasons for the failure of the
engine: "One blow had already been dealt the program through the
accidental death of Capt. L. M. Woolson, Packard's chief engineer in
charge of the Diesel development, on April 23, 1930. Then the Big
Depression took its toll in research work everywhere and Packard was not
excepted."
[Illustration: Figure 14.--Walter E. Lees, Packard chief test pilot (in
cabin) and Frederic A. Brossy, Packard test pilot, before taking off on
their world's record, nonrefueling, heavier-than-air aircraft duration
flight, which lasted 84 hours, 33 minutes, and 1-1/4 seconds.
(Smithsonian photo A48446E.)]
[Illustration: Figure 15.--Walter E. Lees, official timer, and Ray
Collins, manager, 1930 National Air Tour, with their official airplane,
a Packard diesel Waco "Taper Wing," at Packard proving grounds near
Detroit. (Smithsonian photo A49449.)]
[Illustration: Figure 16.--Capt. Karl Fickes, acting head of Goodyear's
airship operations, pointing out features on one of the "Defender's"
Packard diesel engines to Roland J. Blair, Goodyear airship pilot,
Akron, Ohio. From "Aero Digest," February 1932. (Smithsonian photo
A49674.)]
The engine did not fail for the above mentioned reasons. Capt. Woolson's
death was indeed unfortunate, but there were others connected with the
project who carried on his work for three years after he passed away.
The big depression was also unfortunate, but it did not stop
aeronautical engine development. "It was a time when such an engine
would have been most welcome if it had been produced in large enough
numbers to bring the price down to compare favorably pricewise with gas
engines of the same horsepower class."[10] The Packard diesel failed
because it was not a good engine. It was an ingenious engine, and two of
the several features it pioneered (the use of magnesium and of a
dynamically balanced crankshaft) survive in modern reciprocating engine
designs. In addition, when it was first introduced, no other engine
could match it for economical fuel consumption and fuel safety. It also
had other less important advantages, but its disadvantages outweighed
all these advantages, as will be seen.