He joined Packard on July 29, 1912 and began his rise there. World War I briefly affected-but did not interrupt-his career. Commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he "achieved immortality for his role in creation of the Liberty V-12 aircraft engine during World War I". Collaborating with Elbert J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Company, the pair designed the V-12 Liberty powerplant for the Army Air Force in just five days. The effort, however, was late in the war and only a fraction of the engines ended up in military aircraft. By the time of the Armistice with Germany various companies had produced 13,574 Liberty engines; including those made to fulfill wartime contracts a total of 20,478 were built between July 4, 1917 and 1919.Trout, Steven (2006). Cather Studies Vol. 6: History, Memory, and War. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 275–276. .
