1944 Studebaker Cyclone Engine ads

[K5DH]

During WW2, most automotive manufacturers shifted their production to the building of military equipment. Studebaker built Wright Cyclone R1820 engines under license, as well as heavy trucks and other stuff. Lots and lots of B-17Gs flew with Studebaker engines. Here are a couple of Studebaker Cyclone engine advertisements:





Sorry, I don't know what magazine they're from, but based on the size and shape of the pages, I suspect they're from National Geographic. The copyright on the ads is 1944.

[Holedigger]

Cool! It is sometimes amusing the companies that made combat equipment! Like the Amtrac LVT being made by the Food Machinery Corp. I guess as long as they made it right it didn't matter what the name stamped on it was! Seeing a Chevy logo on a Corsair engine block was kind of interesting as well!

[ZRX61]

Cool! It is sometimes amusing the companies that made combat equipment! Like the Amtrac LVT being made by the Food Machinery Corp.

There's a guy down near Chino someplace that has 4 or 5 of those in his backyard for sale.. He used to them to pull powerline cables across the desert decades ago & then just parked them.

[Steve S]

I have flown safely many times courtesy of the Stubebaker 1820's on Thunderbird

[Obergrafeter]

Anybody seen a Maytag Merlin. Don't know how many were made , but I know of at least one.

[mlenoch]

Maytag did not manufacture any Merlins. However, Maytag did make many Merlin parts, such as the Merlin cam covers. These are still fairly common.
Continental made about 300 Merlins in Tehcumsa(sp), Michigan as a manufacturer. Kermit has one on his P-51D and the Kalamazoo MI museum has one on display.
VL

[skymstr02]

There are a lot of Allison' out there with Maytag aluminum and magnesium castings on them, notably the intake manifolds.

[Warhawk]

Cool! It is sometimes amusing the companies that made combat equipment! Like the Amtrac LVT being made by the Food Machinery Corp.

And they still make all kinds of vehicles and construction equipment to this day.

Am going to get me a Smith-Corona 03A3 one of these days too.

[SaxMan]

The C.G. Conn Corporation, which, in peacetime produced every band instrument under the sun as well as the first electronic tuner, the Strobotuner, produced aircraft instruments. Their expertise in precision manufacturing made the switch to aircraft instruments a fairly smooth one.

Unfortunately, the retooling post-war to get back to making instruments, combined with a labor strike really hurt the company. This and the virtual takeover of the saxophone market by the French pretty much doomed the company. Conn exists only as a nameplate now for a bigger music conglomerate, a far cry from the magnificent world class instrument maker they were during the first half of the 20th century.

I have a turn & bank indicator made by Conn sitting on my desk as a paperweight. The markings indicate that it was on a Navy aircraft, but I have no clue which one. I also own the aforementioned Strobotuner as well as a half dozen Conn saxophones built between 1913 and 1952.

The government allowed Conn's competitor, Buescher, to remain in the instrument business during the war, albeit producing limited quantities due to the lack of raw materials such as brass. My main horn is a 1945 Buescher tenor saxophone, produced right around V-J Day. Buescher, however, was purchased by a French instrument maker in 1963, and like Conn, exists only as a nameplate.

[JBoyle]

I have a restored 1963 Studebaker Avanti, so I'm a member of the Studebaker Drivers Club, the club for post-war Studebakers.

There is a guy who reproduces those ads on T-shirts and sells them.
He has all seven different ads Studebaker produced in the war.
He's long long-time and trused member of the club, so I can vouch it's not a rip-off outfit.
http://bondobilly.com/warshirts.htm

PS, I'm not affiliated with the dealer, but if you order anything,please let him know I pointed you in his direction.

[The Inspector]

Buried somewhere in my stuff are some P&W emblems that say 'built by' (just going on memory now haven't seen them in years )-BUICK and STUDEBAKER-Chrysler is credited with saving the R-3350 project when they were issued a contract by digging in and doing major redesigns on the engine. ALLISONS have MAYTAG induction castings and FORD ignition distributors, FORD built JEEPS can be spotted by the 'f' cast into each bolt head in the front hubs. The story goes that FORD was first choice to build MERLINS but old Henery said he 'wasn't buildin' no durn ferrin engines' so the contract went to PACKARD, don't know if it's true but it makes good rumors material.

[JDK]

The story goes that FORD was first choice to build MERLINS but old Henery said he 'wasn't buildin' no durn ferrin engines' so the contract went to PACKARD, don't know if it's true but it makes good rumors material.

Interesting - a quick look at wiki:

In June 1940, Henry Ford had offered to manufacture 1,000 aircraft a day if the Government would let him do it his way, and during a discussion with Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. regarding what the Ford company might produce, Ford's son Edsel tentatively agreed to make 6,000 Rolls-Royce liquid-cooled engines for Great Britain and 3,000 for the U.S.[2] However, at the beginning of July Henry Ford stated that he would manufacture only for Defense, not for Britain, and the entire deal was declared off. Members of the Defense Advisory Commission subsequently began negotiations with other manufacturers in an effort to place the $130,000,000 Rolls-Royce order,[2] and Packard Motor Car Company was eventually chosen because the parent British company was impressed by its attention to high-quality engineering. Agreement was reached in September 1940, and the first Packard-built engine, designated V-1650-1, ran in August 1941.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_V-1650

[Ford]...a fervent isolationist, he will manufacture only for "Defense," not for Britain. At once the entire deal was declared off. Defense Commissioner William S. Knudsen issued a pained, circumstantial account; Morgenthau explained that inasmuch as Britain had given the U.S. permission to make the Rolls motor, "fairness and policy" required that Britain should have the right to buy them. Said Henry Ford: "My offer to make airplanes, aviation engines or anything else the U. S. Government needs for defensive purposes still stands."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 76,00.html

Last edited by JDK on Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

And a further wrinkle in the discussion. I like these odd byways:

However, Rolls-Royce's Stanley Hooker (then head of supercharger development) ascribes this improvement in tolerances and true mass-production standards to the involvement of Ford of Britain. After redrafting all the Merlin drawings to their higher standards, Ford were able to produce 400 Merlin engines a week at their factory in Trafford Park, Manchester.[4]

[Jase]

Couple of comments:

Re Maytag: They also built most of the hydraulic components in the B-26 Marauder, as well as other planes during WW2. They also, thru the sale of War Bonds, "bought" a B-26 known as "Maytag Marauder" in 1943. If memory serves, this was done over only two weeks. Maytag Marauder was crash landed in the Med due to battle damage, all the crew were saved.

Re "Bondobilly": I too am a Studebaker (and Packard, and Hudson) owner/nut. I can also attest that Bill is *not* a ripoff and is a neat guy to boot.

Re Packard Merlins: I've read many many articles that suggested that Packard's engineers had to do much rework to make the Merlin suitable for mass production. Most of these articles held Jesse Vincent responsible for the lions share of the needed redesigns. Col Vincent was the engineering genius behind Packard's original V-12, the "Twin Six".

I too like these "odd byways". Keep em coming!!

[Obergrafeter]

If Connie were to take one of the Maytag marked Merlins and put it in one of the Spanish 109s, would he have a ..........................come on wait for it....a Maytag Messerschidt?