Rare piece of Detroit Packard/Lincoln history found - ( Designer John M Reinhart )

Attachment 12880
Photo of by John M. Reinhart found online.

Presenting a book once owned and signed by John M. Reinhart.

Reinhart was the cheif designer for the Lincoln Mark II, the Packard Patrician and many other cars, a list which is much more exhaustive than my rudimentary online search.

The signature reads:

John M. Reinhart.
November 30, 1936
Detroit, Michigan.

I've been holding on to this item since about 2005, it had significance for me as this is a piece of Detroit memorabilia which turned up in an unlikely place, being in a large box full of books which were part of a estate sale in a dingy auction room in Sydney Australia. I bought it pretty much by accident.

If I were to guess, I would say that Reinhart was transferred to Australia permanently by Ford which had large manufacturing and design facilities which served the domestic market in Sydney until the 1980's.

Attachment 12886

A picture of a Lincoln Zephyr which was illustrated by Reinhart in 1936, the same year that the book was signed.

Photo's of the book:

Attachment 12881

Attachment 12882

Attachment 12883

Attachment 12884

Attachment 12885

The photo's were in high definition but for some reason appear in low quality on here. Is there a way to upload them in better quality?

November 30, 1936? Gosh, I was one month, ten days old. I think I remember him signing that page. [[big LOL).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by riviera

The photo's were in high definition but for some reason appear in low quality on here. Is there a way to upload them in better quality?

---

Very nice pictures and interesting post! Those images are good quality. You really can't get much higher definition than that due to the limited pixelation of monitors.

This is pretty cool. Can I have it?

Here are photos from the Packard glary days:

Attachment 12896

I had no idea that Packard made Diesel aircraft engines. I did know they were licensed to manufacture RollsRoyce engines during the second World War that were used in many Allied aircraft.

From the same booklet:

Attachment 12897

Yes, Packard designed and built numerous aircraft engines before WWII. This is one of the many reasons they were known as “The Master Motor Builder.’

In 1917 Col. Jesse Vincent designed the Liberty engine for aircraft – this was a 1649 cu. In engine with 400HP. Packard built them and because of the war effort it was licensed and also built by Marmom, Ford and Buick. From 1917 to 1919 Detroit produced 20,478 of these engines.

By 1928 Packard developed the DR-980 diesel radial engine for aircraft. It was designed by Lionel Woolson and Herman Dohrner. Before the diesel engine you could not make a ground to aircraft radio transmission because of the interference caused by spark plug wires. Diesel engines do not have spark plugs so Packard set a record in having the first two-way radio communication between the plane and ground.

In 1931 a Buhl Airsedan [[built in Marysville, MI) was fitted with the DR-980 and set a record for time aloft [[without midair re-fueling) at 84 hours and 32 minutes. Pilots that shared this honor were Walter Edwin Lees and Frederick Brossy. It took 55 years for that record to be broken by Burt Rutan and his co-pilot in the Voyager aircraft.

Some links:

http://home.earthlink.net/~ralphcooper/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_DR-980

An ad for Packard most likely not seen since 1923.

Ray 1936

Your BD is Oct 20th?
How cool is that. :)

/hijack