WARREN — Packard trucks, airplane engines and Packard Electric harnesses all were crucial contributions to the allies winning in the waning days of World War I, according to Charlie Ohlin, director of education services at the National Packard Museum in Warren.

In May 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, top Packard engineer Jesse Vincent and E.J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Companies in California, were tapped by the U.S. government to design an airplane engine to be used in military war planes.

“By the time the U.S. entered the war, it was discovered it was not prepared for air battles that were being fought in Europe,” Ohlin said.

Ohlin was one of several speakers featured during the annual Packard Legacy Weekend that began Friday and will end today with the “Cruisin’ the Park” Classic Car Show 1 to 5 p.m. at Packard Park. The car show is sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Olde Car Club, Inc.

Ohlin’s topic Saturday morning was “Packard during World War I: Liberty engines, Army trucks and Pershing’s Twin Six” and focused on Packard’s contributions to the war effort.

“The aviation section of the the Army Signal Corps had been formed just three years earlier,” Ohlin said. “It had just 52 officers, 1,100 enlisted men and 22 civilians working in the division. It had 26 qualified pilots.”

Allied militaries ordered thousands of 22,000 Packard-designed “Liberty” engines in their effort to win the battle of the air being conducted against the Germany Air Force.

The two men designed an aircraft engine within a few days and delivered an eight-cylinder prototype of the engine by July 4, 1917.

“It was because it was delivered on Independence Day that Admiral D.W. Taylor said it should be called Liberty,” Ohlin said.

Later that summer, Vincent was convinced to resign from Packard and joined the U.S. Army as a major. He worked on completing the drawings on two new Liberty engines for the war plane.

The U.S. War Department eventually ordered 22,500 Liberty engines. Contracts for the actual building of the engines were divided among several car companies, including Ford, Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln, Marman and Packard.

Packard built 6,885 of the airplane engines.

“While it was a well-built engine, the Liberty was not as light and nimble as other airplane engines, so not as many were used in European war planes,” Ohlin said.

After the war, Vincent left the military, returning to Packard.

Working on airplane engines was not the only contribution Packard made to the war.

The company increased the production of its large Model D truck, which was used for the transport of soldiers and equipment, both across the U.S. and in the European Theater.

In December 1917, the Army ordered 30 trucks to be delivered to New York for transport overseas. The company decided to have them driven from Detroit to the East Coast to show off their durability.

Dwight Eisenhower, then a young officer, was very supportive of increasing the use of trucks. The company stopped making trucks in 1923 because of competition and lower sales, Ohlin said.

The Packard Electric plant in Warren created important wiring harness shields to protect vehicle wiring.

Robert Pinti, deputy commissioner of the Warren Health Department, spoke about the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic that ravished many U.S. communities, including Warren and Youngstown, during a separate presentation Saturday afternoon.

Pinti described the influenza pandemic killing 50 million people worldwide in 1918, with 675,000 reported influenza deaths in the U.S. There were approximately 200 death certificates that reported influenza being the cause of death in Warren.

The first case of influenza reported in Warren was on Oct. 15, 1918. The first death was two days later. By the end of the month, there were more than 100 reported cases, Pinti said.

Early reports showed the concern about the spread of influenza in Warren, including people being fined anywhere from $5 to $100 for spitting on sidewalks.

“I could not imagine trying to enforce something like that today,” Pinti said. “People were told they could not go to churches and schools. Restaurants would only allow a limited number of people inside of them at any one time.”

Pinti emphasized that Spain was taking a bad rap for the influenza.

“It was one of the only countries that was sending accurate reports of the cases it was seeing,” Pinti said. “Other countries were not reporting what was happening, so it was the spin doctors who pointed at the numbers coming from Spain.”

Pinti said the source in the U.S. may have come from an Army Camp in Kansas. Across the country, nurses and medical personnel treating those with influenza also were falling ill, requiring the recruitment of more nurses.

rsmith@tribtoday.com