Packard Motor Company

Packard was founded in 1899 by two brothers, James Ward Packard (5 November 1863 – 20 March 1928) and William Doud Packard (November 3, 1861 - November 11, 1923) of Warren, Ohio who ran the Packard Electric Company. In 1926 about 20 New York business men, including James Packard, and a group of US Navy officers expressed an interest in building an airplane designed to break the standing air speed record. Navy officials agreed that they would finance the proposal when funds became available. The aircraft was to be completed in time to participate in the 1927 Schneider Trophy Race, which would be held in Italy.

The engine was designed by Navy Captain Lionel Melville Woolson, an aeronautical engineer at the Packard Motor Company of Detroit. The engine was an "X" configured design similar to one upright and one inverted V-12 engine mounted on the same crankshaft with a common crankcase. With 5.375 in (136.5 mm) bore and 5 in (130 mm) stroke, the resulting displacement was 2,775 cu in (45.47 l). The Packard X-2775 engineering involved in the design of the crankshaft, single piece crankcase and the master/slave rod system was very complex.