Allison Engine Company
 |
|
| Industry | Aircraft engines |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Rolls-Royce Corporation |
| Founder | James Allison |
| Parent | General Motors Corporation and later a part of Rolls-Royce Corporation |
The Allison Engine Company was an American aircraft engine manufacturer. Shortly after the death of James Allison in 1929 the company was purchased by the Fisher brothers. Fisher sold the company to General Motors, which owned it for most of its history. It was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc in 1995 to become a subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Corporation.
A predecessor of Allison Engine Company, Concentrated Acetylene Company was founded in September 1904 by James Allison, Percy C. "Fred" Avery and Carl G. Fisher. Avery was the holder of the patent for the product. This company was the predecessor of the Prest-O-Lite Company, a manufacturer of acetylene headlights. An explosion at the acetylene gas works in downtown Indianapolis caused the company to relocate out of town, near the race track in Speedway, Indiana. Allison and Fisher raced automobiles at that track, each owning a race car team. This hobby resulted in Allison building a shop at the track in Speedway where he maintained his fleet of race cars. This shop became the site for Allison Plant #1. Fisher and Allison sold their interest in Prest-O-Lite to Union Carbide for $9,000,000.
Allison started as an engine and car "hot rodding" company servicing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. James Allison was the owner of the Indianapolis Speedway Team Company, a race car business in Indianapolis, Indiana. While it was founded as the Indianapolis Speedway Team Company, its name changed numerous times, first to the Allison Speedway Team Company, then the Allison Experimental Company and last as the Allison Engineering Company before becoming a division of General Motors.
The company's only regular production item was a patented steel-backed lead bearing, which was used in various high performance engines. →[Actually, according to the "Allison War Album" produced by the company and distributed to employees prior to war's end (soon after D-Day), this was a steel-backed BRONZE (not lead) bearing. According to the company document, "A Liberty engine [the company had been engaged with rebuilding these for the Army] equipped with an experimental cooling system broke down after a 31-hour test stand run because of connecting rod bearing failure. The cause was discovered and a cure worked out in the form of a steel-backed bronze bearing. The excellence of the Allison bearing resulted in its wide use in such engines as those of Pratt & Whitney, Wright and the Rolls-Royce, and Allison became one of the leaders of the world in bearing manufacture." A by-product of this experience was the "development of a method of ultra-violet detection of defective bearing material, which won a special commendation from the U.S. Army." A copy of a Western Union telegraph from Brig General George C. Kenny, Materiel Div. Wright Field, citing this accomplishment also appears in the War Album.] ← It also built various drive shafts, extensions and gear chains for high power engines, on demand. Later its main business was the conversion of older Liberty engines to more powerful models, both for aircraft and marine use.
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