Published: Thursday, September 20, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
A Hurricane with the heart of a Buick
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Cory Graff / Flying Heritage Collection
The casing on the cylinder bank of this Hurricane sports the Buick imprint.
Automobile companies turned to other jobs when war swept the world. The FHC's Focke-Wulf Fw 190 is powered by a BMW engine. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 has a Daimler-Benz powerplant. The Allison engine in the P-40 Tomahawk is a product of General Motors. And, of course, the P-51 Mustang cruises along with a Packard under the cowl.
We had an interesting discovery lately with one of our other Packard Merlin-powered planes. If you look closely on the side of the casing for the cylinder banks in the Hurricane … (See photo.)
Packard couldn't make all of those engines by themselves. In fact, factories at Lincoln, Ford, Cadillac, Buick, and Marmon built Merlin engines along with Packard Motor Car Company. Somewhere during the engine installation process for the FHC's Hurricane, someone must have asked that once-famous advertising tagline, “Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?”
We had an interesting discovery lately with one of our other Packard Merlin-powered planes. If you look closely on the side of the casing for the cylinder banks in the Hurricane … (See photo.)
Packard couldn't make all of those engines by themselves. In fact, factories at Lincoln, Ford, Cadillac, Buick, and Marmon built Merlin engines along with Packard Motor Car Company. Somewhere during the engine installation process for the FHC's Hurricane, someone must have asked that once-famous advertising tagline, “Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?”
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