That is, I believe, the place where they built the Packard Merlin that powered my father’s P-51.
When his squadron went on sorties across the North Sea to Norway in the winter of 1944-45, they were told that if the engine failed, no one would come to look for them, because they’d be dead before the search planes got off the ground.
The Packard workers did their job well. If they had not, I would not be here. Sad to see this place in such a state of decay.
Yes I believe you are correct.
Many years after the fact I worked in the labs where the Allison V1710 engines were tested during WW2.
I will say they ran the living sh!t out of each engine before shipping it to make sure there were no premature failures.
“The first two Packard-built Merlins to be completed were demonstrated on test stands at a special ceremony at the Packard plant in Detroit on August 2, 1941.
Full production began in 1942 and by the end of World War II, 55,873 Merlins had been produced in the U.S.A. The Army Air Forces used the engine almost exclusively in the famed P-51 “Mustang”, for it provided greatly improved high-altitude performance over the Allison V-1710 engine used in earlier series of the airplane. The V-1650 Merlin also replaced the V-1710 in the “F” series of the P-40. The British also used Packard-built Merlin’s during the last three years of the war in their “Spitfire”, “Mosquito”, and “Lancaster” airplanes.”
http://www.456fis.org/PACKARD_V-1650_MERLIN_ENGINE.htm
Enjoy the audio of this P-51 fly by with the Merlin engine humming along.
http://www.rrbew.co.uk/FeaturePics/MerlinSound.wav
I love the smell of high octane av gas in the morning..
Neat post!!