Allison's Speedway Team

By Sigur Whitaker
 
With World War I raging in Europe and American automobile manufacturers losing interest in racing, Carl Fisher and Jim Allison faced the possibility in 1916 of not having enough entries for the Indianapolis 500. The solution was to start two race teams—Speedway Team Company and Prest-O-Lite Team Company. That solved one problem but created another—the cars would need maintenance and repair.
 
After founding the two race teams, Allison was disappointed in their performance in the 1916 Indianapolis 500. They had seven cars including three on the front row of a field of 21. Only two of the cars finished the race. Even more disappointing was that none of the cars on the front row finished. Five of the Speedway/Prest-O-Lite cars (57%) had a mechanical issue which caused them to drop out of the race. For the other 14 cars in the race, only 4 had a mechanical issue (29%).
 
Allison was frustrated by the performance of the two teams and asked Johnny Aitken, team manager, for advice. Aitken responded “…if he had a machine shop where he could turn out precision parts instead of using stock parts, he could win a race.” Allison took Aitken’s advice and relocated Speedway Team Company to a new one-story building on Main Street near the Speedway renaming it Allison Speedway Team Company.
 
Allison equipped the shop with the most modern equipment available. Over time, he hired twenty highly skilled mechanics and engineers who had learned their craft at various automobile companies in Indianapolis, particularly National Motor Vehicle Company.
 
In 1917, Allison hired Norman Gilman as chief engineer and superintendent for Allison Experimental. The United States entrance into World War I on April 17 would have a significant impact upon the company. Allison told Gilman, “Can’t have any more races. Quit the work on the cars, but hold the men and keep on paying them.” Allison continued, “Go out and find out how we can get the war orders rolling. Take any job you like, especially the ones others can’t do.”
 
Gilman responded positively to this change. Allison Engineering gained a variety of engineering jobs including the development of production models of trucks, superchargers, Whippet tanks and high-speed tractors. The largest contract gained by Allison Engineering was to improve a Caterpillar-type tractor for the U. S. Army which was trying to find a vehicle to carry artillery.
 
When the United States entered World War I, the War Department had only fifty-five planes, the majority of which were training craft. With the need for more planes, the War Department focused on increased production. Over the next nineteen months, over twelve thousand planes were manufactured.
 
Even more significant for the future of Allison Engineering was the development of the tools, gauges, models and fixtures for the Liberty Engines for Nordyke & Marmon. Allison Experimental made the original Liberty engine cut out of solid billets of steel. This served as the tooling model for Nordyke & Marmon. It was then copied in the manufacturing of the engines. Allison Experimental staffing quickly increased to 100 mechanics and engineers and 150 temporary draftsmen. To provide space for them, Allison constructed a two-story building on Main Street.
 
The United States Navy needed an aircraft capable of transatlantic flights. The solution was the modification of the Liberty engine to include reduction gears which allowed both the engine and the propellers to operate at peak efficiency. The elicyclic reduction geared Liberty engine was designed by Packard Motors with the assistance of Maurice Olley, a Rolls-Royce engineer. In January 1918, Allison Engineering won a contract to produce 250 epicyclic geared Liberty engines.
 
As World War I drew to a close, the company returned to the development of parts for auto racing engines. As soon as the Armistice was announced, Speedway management began making plans to reinstate the Indianapolis 500. In early 1919, at the small machine shop on Main Street in Speedway, Indiana, the Peugeot owned by Allison and driven by Johnny Aitken in the 1916 races was brought out of retirement. This car could have been one of the Peugeot cars which won the 1913 Grand Prix.
 
By the end of May 1919, Speedway Team Company had two vehicles ready to run in the Indianapolis 500. The Peugeot owned by Allison was driven by Howdy Wilcox, a native Hoosier and a favorite of the crowd. In this car, Wilcox was the first driver to break 100 mph, in a qualifying run. His record did not stand for long. René Thomas, winner of the 1914 Indianapolis 500, won the pole position driving 104.7 mph. Driving the other Speedway Team car was Jules Goux who finished third.
 
The 1919 Indianapolis 500 was a test of endurance. Wilcox won the race with an average speed of 88.05 mph and teammate Jules Goux finished third.
 
Part 2
 
Having achieved his goal of winning the Indianapolis 500, Jim Allison shuttered the racing operation and sold the racing vehicles. By this time, Allison’s primary focus was on his investments in Florida, and he turned management of the company over to Norm Gilman. To reflect the change in focus, the company was renamed Allison Engineering. Allison directed Gilman to pursue contracts similar to what they had done during World War I.
 
The Liberty engines, which had been manufactured for World War I airplanes, had one major flaw. After about 50 hours of operation, they would suffer the failure of the connecting rod. Gilman and the Allison engineers diagnosed the problem as being the distortion of the rod bearing shell at high speeds. At that time, the rod bearing had a heavy bronze shell lined with babbitt. The bearing had been clamped onto the rod. As the bronze rod worked back and forth, it began to deteriorate. Gilman proposed making the rod out of steel instead of bronze, but this did not work well. After running various tests, Allison engineers were able to heat the steel shell until it was red hot and then cast a molten lead bronze mixture around it. This solution provided the strength of steel but the properties of bronze. The rod was then milled to the proper specifications. This extended the life of the Liberty engine from about 50 hours to hundreds of hours. The creative solution led to Allison Engineering gaining Army contracts after the war to retrofit new bearing not surplus Liberty engines.
 
In 1921, Allison Engineering began to manufacture steel bearings with a bronze liner for the Wright Aeronautical Whirlwind engines. They were of such high quality that Charles Lindbergh insisted that the engine in the Spirit of St. Louis manufactured by the Wright Aeronautical Company utilize Allison bearings prior to his flight to Paris. Allison assistant chief engineer John Goldthwaithe believed that one thing that made Lindbergh’s flight possible were the Allison bearings.
 
By 1927, the bronzed engine bearings developed by Allison Engineering were used in all U. S. and most foreign made piston type aircraft engines. Allison soon became a major supplier to aircraft engine manufacturers throughout the world. The use of the Allison bearings for both automobile and airplane production resulted in sales doubling in 1927 and 1928.
 
In 1923, Allison Engineering designed and built reduction gears for the United States Navy’s Shenandoah, a zeppelin (blimp) type aircraft. The Shenandoah required reduction and reverse gearing with clutches, brakes, extension shafts, and vibration dampers. Based upon the success of the reduction gears for the Shenandoah, Allison Engineering was the successful bidder for a prototype extension gear for Goodyear. This extension shaft gear was the longest shafting used in aircraft at that time.
 
In 1924, Allison Engineering designed its first engine for the military market, a 4,520 cubic inch air-cooled engine which generated 1,200 horsepower. The engine, the X-4520, was designed for a large biplane and was the largest engine known at the time of development. When Ford developed a trimotor transport, the monoplane with multiple sources of power was established as a viable option for powering large aircraft. Although the X-4520 engine was not used by the Army Air Corps, it was displayed at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in the mid-1930s. It was found in a New England junkyard and is now on display as part of the collection of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust-Allison Branch in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
In the mid-1920s, the company also manufactured high speed blowers for aircraft engine supercharging. These were sold to foreign governments as well as Pratt & Whitney. The Pratt & Whitney R1340 Whisper engines using Allison reduction gears set altitude records for several years during the late 1920s.
 
Another Allison Engineering development in the mid-1920s was the gears for a helicopter. A Russian, George DeBothezat, convinced the United States Army that he could build an aircraft which could rise from the ground by a huge propeller on a vertical shaft. His problem was that, although he could design the aircraft, he didn’t have the technical expertise to design the gears and shafts. Allison Engineering was able to design the parts which would turn the large propeller including the gearing, the shaft and the bearings. Unfortunately for Debothezat, his design, when built, could only rise about five feet from the ground.
 
Allison Engineering was also involved in the development of a diesel engine to be used in the zeppelin-type airships at the request of the United States Navy. The original power source for the airships was gasoline. By 1927, Allison Engineering had developed an air-cooled engine for the Army Air Force which had 1200 horsepower and weighed 2700 pounds.
 
One of the issues for Allison Engineering was that they didn’t have a product line which would generate sustainable profits. Allison, whose health was failing, understood this was an issue but he didn’t have any interest in pursuing contracts. He wrote to Carl Fisher in August 1924, “Going into a regular manufacturing business would mean that I would have to pitch in and build up a selling organization, and as long as I am comfortably located on Biscayne Bay, listening to the rattle of the trucks over the Causeway and enjoying the cool breeze at the Fish house, my mind does not hanker to tackle another job.”
 
Throughout the history of Allison Engineering, the emphasis was on the development of superior products and solving engineering problems. Allison did not have a mandate for the firm to be profitable and was content to break even. His only charge to the management of Allison Engineering was, “I want that Allison name something to be proud of.” He encouraged risk taking in terms of developing something which had seemed impossible.
 
Part 3
 
Jim Allison was approached by Eddie Rickenbacker in 1927 to purchase Allison Engineering. This high-end machine shop was Allison’s pride and joy which he visited about once a year. Allison was living in Miami Beach and although he visited Indianapolis about once a year, he turned Rickenbacker down. Instead, Rickenbacker and his consortium purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
Allison died the next year but his machine shop lived on. Before his death in July 1928, Allison had expressed to close friends that he wanted the company to remain in Indianapolis and the executors of the estate worked to make this happen. They had offers from Wright Aeronautical and Consolidated Aeronautical but if either bought the company it would be relocated.
 
On January 1, 1929, the company, which had 200 employees and approximately 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space, was bought by Fisher & Company of Detroit for $500,000. The owners of Fisher & Company, Lawrence P. Fisher and E. J. Fisher, also owned Fisher Body and were on the executive committee of General Motors. They named Eddie Rickenbacker as president.
 
General Motors management had determined that the aviation industry was the growth area for the 1930s just as the automobile had been at the turn of the century.  General Motors bought the company on April 1, 1929, for “the price paid by them [Fisher & Company] plus six percent interest during the time they have held the investment.” General Motors also bought an adjacent eleven acre plot and allocated $200,000 for improvement of operations.
 
The purchase of Allison Engineering was part of General Motors push into the aviation industry. In 1929, they also bought 24% interest in Bendix Aviation and 40% interest in Fokker Aircraft Corporation. Over time, General Motors invested in companies involved with aircraft manufacturing, aircraft engine manufacturing and airlines including General Aviation, North American Aviation, Eastern Air Transport (which became Eastern Airlines), Transcontinental Air Transport, and Western Air Express. While Allison might not have had a mandate for the company to make a profit, General Motors did. General Motors transformed the small company into one of America’s leading engine and transmission manufacturers.
 
The General Motors Operations Committee focused on the type of aviation engines the company should design and build. As part of the Operations Committee, Allison general manager Norm Gilman decided that the company’s future lay in the development of an engine to replace the now obsolete Liberty engine. This would build upon Allison Engineering’s knowledge of water-cooled engines and the stresses upon engines when they are manufactured from aluminum and steel. In the development of this engine, Gilman believed the company should strive for more horsepower than had ever been developed. The company’s goal became the development of a 1000 horsepower engine.
 
In May 1929, Harold Cominez, an aircraft engine designer, was hired to develop the prototype for a more powerful engine. Using the best features of the Liberty engine and a Rolls-Royce V1650 engine, the V-1710 engine was designed. Responding to an order from the United States Navy, the prototype for a 750-horsepower engine was delivered in March 1932.
 
Initially everything looked positive for the engine at 750 horsepower, but when it was increased to 800 horsepower, the engine started experiencing a variety of failures, including cracked crankcases and fatigued crankshafts. Ronald Hazen, who joined Allison in 1933, was named chief engineer and was tasked with identifying and fixing the problems with the engine. He focused on two requirements of the Air Corps. The contract called for fuel injection rather than a carburetor even though fuel injection had not yet been developed. The second requirement was a lightweight engine which resulted in it being unable to bear the stress of high revolutions.
 
After identifying the issues, Allison engineers redesigned the V-1710 engine with a standard carburetor and strengthened the weak points through additional metal and improved castings. The redesigned engine prototype was ready for testing in thirteen weeks. In a 150 hour test, the engine performed well until the 140th hour when a crack developed in the cylinder head. Despite this setback, the results of the test led to an order for eight engines. On a cold December day at the Wright Airfield outside of Dayton, Ohio, the V-1710 was attached to an aircraft and made its first flight. In April 1937, the V-1710 passed its 150-hour trial, becoming the first United States engine with 1000 horsepower.
 
This engine was chosen by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for its XP-38 aircraft, which was entered into a competition for planes with speeds up to 360 miles per hour. The twin engine plane delivered speeds more than 400 miles per hour on a run from Riverside, California, to Dayton, Ohio. Unfortunately, on the final leg of the trip to Long Island, New York, the plane crashed while landing. The speed obtained during the flight was of great interest to those in England and France. Germany’s Messerschmitt B-109 engine had set a world’s record of 469 miles per hour using a 1,000 horsepower Daimler-Benz engine. Neither England nor France had an engine which could approach the power of the Messerschmitt B-109. Orders poured in from England, France, and the United States for over 4,000 V-1710 engines.
 
With war breaking out in Europe, the specter of the United States being drawn into the fighting increased. Even though funding for the engines had not been approved, assistant secretary of war Louis Johnson asked General Motors to construct a plant for the V-1710 engines. General Motors responded by building a 360,000 square foot facility in Speedway, Indiana.
 
The plant windowless design was influenced by the sensitivity to key materials used in the engine, aluminum and magnesium, which were sensitive to humidity and fluctuations in temperature. To light the plant, the fluorescent light, which had first been displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair, was used. It was the first large scale use of fluorescent lighting. The plant required 20,000 five-foot-long lighting fixtures which were manufactured by Westinghouse. In order to keep the temperature stable, the plant was air conditioned.
 
By the time production began at this facility, General Motors had procured a contract from the United States for the V-1710 engine. Additional orders poured in from England, France, and China. Prior to construction of the new plant, Allison Engineering, with a payroll of approximately 600, produced 200 engines per year. In 1940, Allison produced 1,153 engines, which grew to 6,433 engines in 1941. By December 1941, there were 12,000 employees dedicated to the production of the V-1710 engine.
 
As the war continued, the demand outstripped the capacity of the Allison manufacturing facilities. In response, a 200,000 square-foot plant was constructed. One of the challenges encountered during the construction of this plant was the inability to use steel, as this material was needed for military hardware. The plant was built using wood for the beams, struts, and braces for the structural components. One of the side effects of the use of wood was warping, which required it to be straightened on a regular basis.
 
By 1943, when the production of the V-1710 engine peaked, Allison had more than 23,000 employees producing over 3,000 aircraft engines monthly. Between 1939 and 1945, approximately 70,000 V-1710 engines and 10 million aircraft bearings were produced at Allison.
 
While Allison ramped up production of the V-1710 to support the war effort, Allison engineers were focused on improvement in the engine. This resulted in the V-1710 engine’s horsepower increasing from 1,000 in 1937 to 1600 horsepower during take-off and 2000 horsepower during combat by the end of World War II.