Gallery 7, First Diesel Flight,1927-1931
 
  In Detroit at Packard, Walter became involved in a very special Project. Captain Lionel M. Woolson, the Chief Aeronautical Engineer and Dipl.Ing., Hermann I.A. Dorner, a diesel engine inventor from Hanover, Germany, designed the Packard diesel with the help of Packard engineers and Dorner's assistant, Adolph Widmann. Walter worked with Woolson and Marvin Steele, the assistant engineer.
     The historic first flight of the Packard diesel engine took place on September 19, 1928, at the Packard proving grounds, Utica, Michigan. But the first unofficial test was made the night before. Walter was given the distinction of flying the world's first diesel powered airplane flight.
 
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Crew of Big Naval Plane
Visiting Miami
April 1927
Giant Armored Bomber
Philadelphia
August 1927
Packard Diesel
Model DR---980 of 1928
Lionel Woolson &
Walter E. Lees
Packard Diesel Stinson
X7654, May, 1929
Alvan Macauley &
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh
Packard Diesel Stinson
X7654, May 1929
First Cross-country
Packard Diesel Stinson
X7654, May, 1929
Walter Lees & Bernarr Macfadden
June, 1929
Lindbergh Inspects Diesel
August, 1929
Will Rogers & Bernarr McFadden
National Air Races, Cleveland
August, 1929
Diesel Powered
Waco Taperwing X4N
November, 1929
Packard Diesel Engine
November, 1929
Detroit to Miami Flight
Packard Diesel Stinson
X7654, March, 1930
Detroit to Miami for $8.50, March, 1930 Capt. Lionel Woolson
Designer of the Packard-Diesel
April, 1930
Packard-Diesel powered
Buhl Air Sedan
October, 1930
Buhl Aircraft Company, 1930
National Air Tour
November,1930
Nancy Hopkins
National Air Tour,1930
Bleriot 110
Endurance Record
March, 1931
Bernard 80 G.R.
Endurance Record
March, 1931
National Air Tour, Edsel Ford Trophy
July, 1931
National Air Tour
Happy Homecoming
July, 1931
Diesel Powered
Waco Taperwing NC4N
August, 1931
Diesel Powered
Verville, Air Coach
NC70W, 1939?

 
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