Although many of us might like to think that the Liberty engine was designed to power fast wooden boats that was not the case at all. It was designed to be the primary high-power aircraft engine of the U.S. Army and Navy Air Services during World War I, by J. G. Vincent, Vice President of Engineering of the Packard Motor Car Company, and E. J. Hall, Vice President and Chief Engineer of the Hall-Scott Motor Car Company.
Packard was a very prominent builder of automobiles that had recently decided to enter the aero engine business; Hall-Scott was primarily a builder of railroad cars but also probably the second largest builder of aero engines in this country. Both of these men had been designers of very successful engines for a number of years.
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The two men were brought together in Washington, DC at the behest of the recently formed Aircraft Production Board. They met in the Willard Hotel suite of Edward A. Deeds, its lead engineer, on May 29, 1917, and by the afternoon of June 4, the two men had completed the basic design of what was first known as the “U.S.A. Standardized Aircraft Engine” and would soon become the “Liberty” engine.
The Packard Motor Car Company was contracted to finalize the design and build a group of 11 prototype engines: six eight- cylinder and five twelve-cylinder versions. The first eight-cylinder ran on July 25, 1917, and the first twelve-cylinder on August 13. The twelve passed its government 50 reliability test on August 25. It was a remarkable record for a major aircraft engine, to go from initiation of design to a running engine in 60 days and from initiation of the design to successful acceptance test in 90 days.
Beginning in September 1917 contracts were placed with a number of different automotive companies for production of the engine, primarily in its twelve-cylinder version. It was, however, designed in four-, six-, eight- and twelve -cylinder versions, since the initial idea was to use the design as a basis for a universal group of engines to serve all aeronautical purposes. Ultimately, only the twelve was produced in large numbers.
By the end of the war 20,842 twelves and 29 eights had been built. The original intended purpose was primarily aeronautical, although power for heavy tanks was a secondary use and 100 were used in Mark VIII Heavy Tanks of the Armored Corps. The Liberty twelve became the primary high- power aircraft engine of the US Army and Navy during the war. It continued to be used by the Navy until 1931 and the Army until 1935. It was also ordered in large quantities for aircraft by the British Government during the War and continued to power British military aircraft into the middle 1920s. The French had also ordered quantities of the engine and used it primarily in Breguet aircraft until about 1928.
Because far more engines were built that were put into aircraft use, there were a great many available as surplus for other purposes. These varied from tank engines, to racecar engines, to power generators, to wind machines for the movie industry, to marine engines. Ah yes. Our favorite subject, the wooden boat.
Marine Conversions of the Liberty
The Liberty twelve was available in small quantities as surplus by early 1919. Surplus aircraft engines from military stocks almost immediately caught on as good engines for marine conversion. These were light and powerful and reasonably reliable. More importantly, they were very cheap compared to marine engines of similar power. The Liberty was the most powerful of the lot during this era. It would make a grand engine to power either small, fast boats or large cruisers and yachts.
the C. C. Smith Liberty
The first conversions noted by the author were done by the C. C. Smith Boat & Engine Co. of Algonac, Michigan, for Gar Wood. Wood had one installed in his Miss Detroit II and Miss Detroit III and entered both in the 1919 Gold Cup Race. Another Liberty-powered boat was entered, Eleventh Hour. This boat was Hacker designed and driven by Paul Strassburg. Power was by a Smith- converted Liberty. Wood’s boats finished with Miss Detroit II in first and Miss Detroit III in second. Eleventh Hour failed to finish the second heat, having lost her prop. She was repaired and started the third heat the next day, running third until she hit a heavy swell and swamped. The regatta also included an express cruiser race in which Wood entered his Gar Jr., which was also Smith-Liberty powered. It won.
the Grant Liberty
By 1920 Smith seems to have removed himself from the Liberty conversion business and had been replaced by Howard M. Grant. Actually, it appears that Grant was working with Smith in 1919 when the first conversions were done under Smith’s name, and probably handled most of the conversion work that Smith did. In 1920 Grant set up his own company in Detroit to do these conversions and Smith advertised that his boat company used them in their boats. Grant stayed in the business until about 1925.
To read more about Liberty engines including conversions by:
- Lee
- Gar Wood
- Capitol
- Johnson Marine
- Globe M-500 Lyon-Tuttle
- and Vimalert
log into the ACBS member-only portal, MyACBS.org to access the 2010 issue.