The First Airplane Diesel Engine: Packard Model DR-980 of 1928Meyer, Robert B.
History
The First Airplane Diesel Engine: Packard Model DR-980 of 1928
Meyer, Robert B.
Airplanes -- Motors (Diesel)
ANALYSIS 33
Advantages 33
Disadvantages 35
APPENDIX
1. Agreement Between Hermann I. A. Dorner and Packard
Motor Car Company 43
2. Packard to Begin Building Diesel Plane Engines Soon 46
3. Effect of Oxygen Boosting on Power and Weight 47
Acknowledgments
It is difficult to acknowledge fully the assistance given by persons and
museums for the preparation of this book. However, I wish especially to
thank Hugo T. Byttebier, engine historian, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Dipl. Ing. Hermann I. A. Dorner, diesel designer, Hanover, Germany;
Harold E. Morehouse, and C. H. Wiegman, Lycoming Engines, Williamsport,
Pennsylvania; Barry Tully, Goodyear Aircraft, Akron, Ohio; Richard S.
Allen, aviation author, Round Lake, New York; William H. Cramer, brother
of Parker D. Cramer, Wantagh, New York; Erik Hildes-Heim, Early Bird and
aviation historian, Fairfield, Connecticut.
I am particularly grateful to curators of the following museums who have
been so generous in their assistance: Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany
(Dipl. Ing. W. Jackle); Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan (Leslie,
R. Henry); U.S. Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Dayton, Ohio (Maj. Robert L. Bryant, Jr., director); Science Museum,
London, England (Lt. Comdr. (E) W. J. Tuck, Royal Navy). The preparation
of this paper could not have been accomplished without the aid of the
National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and the help of
Philip S. Hopkins, director, and Paul E. Garber, head curator and
historian.
Foreword
In this second number of the _Smithsonian Annals of Flight_, Robert B.
Meyer Jr., curator and head of the flight propulsion division, tells the
story of the first oil-burning engine to power an airplane, the Packard
diesel engine of 1928, now in the collections of the National Air
Museum.
The author's narrative, well illustrated with drawings and photographs,
provides a historical background for the development of the engine, and
a technical description that includes specifications and details of
performance. It also contains comments from men and women who flew
planes powered by the Packard diesel. The author concludes with an
analysis of the engine's advantages and disadvantages.
PHILIP S. HOPKINS
_Director, National Air Museum_
30 July 1964
Introduction
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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