The PT Boat Forum
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Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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Topic:
Packard Maine Engine Rosie.
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?cid=101&fid=102&tid=5195
During the war, when Packard switched from automobile manufacturing to aircraft and marine engine production at the East Grand Boulevard plant in Detroit, the company hired hundreds of women to fill jobs. The Rosies of the Packard Motor Car Company made significant contributions to the war effort.
One of these Rosies was Martha Carlson Phelan. Mrs. Phelan was a PT boat engine inspector at the Packard plant. She came up with a way to speed up the engine production process and became the first woman war worker in Detroit to win the War Production Board Award “of Individual Production Merit.”The First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, flew to Detroit in January 1943 to personally congratulate her in this photo.
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Nov 19, 2022 - 3:08pm
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
That is a great bit of trivia! On the other side of the pond, Rolls Royce was having trouble with their Merlin airplane engines, (which Packard would build under contract.) when a Spitfire of Hurricane would go into a dive the carburetor would momentarily flood and drown the supercharger causing at best momentary cutout, or worse a complete engine stop!. The Messerschmitt Bf109s with fuel injection did not have that problem, So if a 109 was behind them, they were meat on the table! Luckily, a young lady by the name of Beatrice Tilly Shilling, came up with a solution that at least slowed the effect down, It was a simple thimble shaped washer, that would restrict fuel. It didn't cure it completely, but bought precious time. Of course the men gave the device all kinds of nickname's; Miss Shilling's Orifice, Miss Tilly's Diaphragm or simply Tilly's Orifice! What ever you call it, she saved countless allied pilots lives!
Posted By: Stearman | Posted on: Nov 20, 2022 - 8:42pm
Total Posts: 150 | Joined: Nov 1, 2017 - 9:38pm
Thanks for your information which I am sure not many of us are aware of.
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Nov 21, 2022 - 8:55am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am