Invader26 wrote: His comment to me was that they never liked the Studebaker engines and in his words "they were junk compared to Wright motors"....
As a Studebaker Club member when I restored and owned an Avanti, I started paying attention to the engine builders when B-17s came to town in tours. The last I saw (either
Aluminum Overcast or
The Movie Memphis Belle), had 3 Studebaker engines and one Wright. So they could I have been
that bad.
Morgan was particularly disdainful of Studebaker engines and sadly, his prejudice has influenced a lot of opinions of younger people with no direct knowledge or experience in the matter.
I wonder how much the prejudice was a manifestation of "mind over matter"...
After all, who would you want to build the engines in
your aircraft, a second-tier car builder (though in the 30s and '40s Studebaker built some high quality...and expensive...cars, not just lower middle-price cars they are best remembered for today)...or the company that built Lindy's J-5?
BTW: My father was a pilot in the 463rd BG...IIRC, part of the same wing as the 483rd. He never expressed a power plant preference in the '17.