The American Automobile Industry in World War Two
An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute by David D Jackson

Overview      Lansing Michigan in World War Two   The U.S. Auto Industry at the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944    The U.S. Auto Industry and the B-29 Bomber   U.S. Auto Industry Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   The Complete listing of All Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   Sherman Tanks of the American Auto Industry   Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry    M26 Pershing Tanks of the American Auto Industry   M36 Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry   Serial Numbers for WWII Tanks built by the American Auto Industry   Surviving LCVP Landing Craft    WWII Landing Craft Hull Numbers   Airborne Extra-Light Jeep Photos  The American Auto Industry vs. the German V-1 in WWII   American Auto Industry-Built Anti-Aircraft Guns in WWII   VT Proximity Manufacturers of WWII   World War One Era Motor Vehicles   National Museum of Military Vehicles  
Revisions   Links

 Automobile and Body Manufacturers:  American Bantam Car Company   Briggs Manufacturing Company   Checker Car Company   Chrysler Corporation   Crosley Corporation   Ford Motor Car Company   General Motors Corporation   Graham-Paige Motors Corporation   Hudson
Motor Car Company   Murray Corporation of America   Nash-Kelvinator   Packard Motor Car Company      Studebaker    Willys-Overland Motors

General Motors Divisions:  AC Spark Plug   Aeroproducts   Allison   Brown-Lipe-Chapin   Buick   Cadillac   Chevrolet   Cleveland Diesel   Delco Appliance   Delco Products   Delco Radio   Delco-Remy   Detroit Diesel   Detroit Transmission   Electro-Motive   Fisher Body   Frigidaire   GM Proving Grounds   GM of Canada   GMC   GMI   Guide Lamp   Harrison Radiator   Hyatt Bearings   Inland   Moraine Products   New Departure   Oldsmobile   Packard Electric   Pontiac   Saginaw Malleable Iron   Saginaw Steering Gear   Southern California Division   Rochester Products   Ternstedt Manufacturing Division   United Motors Service   Vauxhall Motors

 Indiana Companies:  Bailey Products Corporation   Chrysler Kokomo Plant   Continental Steel Corporation  Converto Manufacturing    Cummins Engine Company   Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Company   Delta Electric Company   Durham Manufacturing Company   Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation   Haynes Stellite Company   Hercules Body Company   Horton Manufacturing Company   Howe Fire Apparatus   J.D. Adams Company   Kokomo Spring Company   Magnavox  
Muncie Gear Works   Pierce Governor Company   Portland Forge and Foundry   Reliance Manufacturing Company   Republic Aviation Corporation - Indiana Division   Ross Gear and Tool Company   S.F. Bowser & Co.   Sherrill Research Corporation   Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company   Warner Gear   Wayne Pump Company   Wayne Works

Commercial Truck and Fire Apparatus Manufacturers:  American LaFrance   Autocar  
Biederman Motors Corporation   Brockway Motor Company   Detroit General   Diamond T   Duplex Truck Company   Federal Motor Truck   Four Wheel Drive Auto Company(FWD)   International Harvester   John Bean   Mack Truck   Marmon-Herrington Company   Michigan Power Shovel Company   Oshkosh Motor Truck Corporation   Pacific Car and Foundry   "Quick-Way" Truck Shovel Company   Reo Motor Car Company  Seagrave Fire Apparatus   Sterling Motor Truck Company    Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation   White Motor Company

Aviation Companies:  Abrams Instrument Corporation   Hughes Aircraft Company   Kellett Aviation Corporation   Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corporation   Naval Aircraft Factory   P-V Engineering Forum, Inc.    Rudolf Wurlitzer Company-DeKalb Division  Schweizer Aircraft Corporation   Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corporation   St. Louis Aircraft Corporation   Timm Aircraft Corporation

Other World War Two Manufacturers: 
Air King Products   Allis-Chalmers   American Car and Foundry   American Locomotive   American Stove Company   Annapolis Yacht Yard  
Andover Motors Company   B.F. Goodrich   Baker War Industries   Baldwin Locomotive Works   Blood Brothers Machine Company   Boyertown Auto Body Works   Briggs & Stratton   Caterpillar   Cheney Bigelow Wire Works   Centrifugal Fusing   Chris-Craft   Clark Equipment Company   Cleaver-Brooks Company   Cleveland Tractor Company   Continental Motors   Cushman Motor Works   Crocker-Wheeler   Dail Steel Products   Detroit Wax Paper Company   Detrola   Engineering & Research Corporation   Farrand Optical Company   Federal Telephone and Radio Corp.   Firestone Tire and Rubber Company   Fruehauf Trailer Company   Fuller Manufacturing   Galvin Manufacturing   Gemmer Manufacturing Company   General Railway Signal Company   Gibson Guitar   Gibson Refrigerator Company   Goodyear   Hall-Scott   Hanson Clutch and Machinery Company   Harley-Davidson   Harris-Seybold-Potter   Herreshoff Manufacturing Company   Higgins Industries    Highway Trailer   Hill Diesel Company   Holland Hitch Company   Homelite Company   Horace E. Dodge Boat and Plane Corporation   Huffman Manufacturing   Indian Motorcycle   Ingersoll Steel and Disk   John Deere   Johnson Automatics Manufacturing Company   Kimberly-Clark   Kohler Company   Kold-Hold Company   Landers, Frary & Clark  Lima Locomotive Works   Lundberg Screw Products   MacKenzie Muffler Company   Massey-Harris   Matthews Company   McCord Radiator & Mfg. Company   Metal Mouldings Corporation   Miller Printing Machinery Company   Morse Instrument Company   Motor Products Corporation   Motor Wheel Corporation   National Cash Resgister Company   Novo Engine Company   O'Keefe & Merritt Company   Olofsson Tool and Die Company   Oneida Ltd   Otis Elevator   Owens Yacht   Pressed Steel Car Company   Queen City Manufacturing Company   R.G. LeTourneau   R.L. Drake Company   St. Clair Rubber Company   Samson United Corporation   Shakespeare Company   Sight Feed Generator Company   Simplex Manufacturing Company   Steel Products Engineering Company   St. Louis Car Company   Twin Disc Company   Victor Adding Machine Company   Vilter Manufacturing Company   Wells-Gardner   W.L. Maxson Corporation   W.W. Boes Company   Westfield Manufacturing Company   York-Hoover Body Company   Youngstown Steel Door Company  
   

 R.L. Drake Company During World War Two
Dayton, OH

1943- Early 2000 era

This page added 5-18-2023.


Mr. Robert Lloyd Drake Sr. founded the company with his name in 1943 to provide electronic equipment to help win World War Two.  Although a brand new company in an industry that was dominated by several large radio and electronics firms, the R.L. Drake Company was still awarded three major contracts by the Army Signal Corps.  The three contracts totaled $377,000.

Mr. Drake had previously held several electrical engineering jobs with companies in the Dayton, OH area after graduating from the University of Cincinnati during the Great Depression.  While working at these companies, he began the development and manufacture of band pass filters at home in the evenings.  He sold these to radio amateurs, like himself, to prevent stray signals from entering their receivers.  The use of band pass filters was an innovative idea of Mr. R.L. Drake and was the foundation of the new company he opened in Dayton, OH in 1943.  After World War Two, the R.L. Drake Company became a leader in innovative and cost effective communications equipment for amateur radio operators. 


I have my own personal connection to the R.L. Drake Company as I own a Drake SW8 world band shortwave receiver.  I have been a casual shortwave listener ever since I built my first Knight-Kit receiver in junior high school.  I have owned and built several types of shortwave receivers since that time, but in the 1990s I became aware that the R.L. Drake Company was now producing shortwave receivers along with the amateur radio equipment.  I knew of the excellent reputation of the R.L. Drake Company and purchased this SW8 at a ham fest. 

R.L. Drake Company's World War Two Products:  As noted above, the R.L Drake Company had three major contracts during the last two years of World War Two.  These were contracts with values over $50,000 so the company could also have had other undocumented contracts for less than this value. 

Table 1 - R.L. Drake's Major World War Two Contracts
The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division. 
Product - Customer Contract Number Contract Amount Contract Awarded Date Completion Date
Radio Monitors BC1255 - Army Signal Corps 33042-SC-676 $70,000 1-1944 5-1944
 Radio Filters - Army Signal Corps 33042-SC-1863 $80,000 9-1944 12-1944
 Detector Sets PRS2 - Army Signal Corps 33039-SC-26800 $227,000 6-1945 12-1945
Total   $377,000    

BC-1255 Heterodyne VHF Monitor:


R.L. Drake built the BC-1255 Heterodyne VHF Monitor built under license under Army Signal Corps contract 33042-SC-676.  This three tube radio had one 958 and two 2-1S5 tubes.  This rare example of the first radios built by the R.L. Drake Company is part of a large and excellent display of Drake radios at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester, OH.  Author's photo.


This example is serial number 57.  I have only been able to find evidence of two other examples of this radio.  One is serial number 484 and the other is 543.  It is unknown how many BC-1255s the company produced for the war effort.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.

F-15/U Band Pass Filter:  There is very little documentation of this device.  It appears that these were used in army radios to prevent jamming by the German military in Europe and was built under contract 33042-SC-1863.

AN-PRS-2 Non-Metallic Mine Detector:  As with the F-15/U band pass filter, information on the AN-PRS-2 is extremely limited.  This was part of a series of mine detectors produced late in the war used to find non-metallic enemy mines.  There is no documentation nor photos of the AN-PRS-2.  Shown below is a World War Two era AN-PRS-1.  The AN-PRS-2 was most likely similar yet more advanced version of the AN-PRS-1.


This complete Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation-built AN-PRS-1 non-metallic mine detector is on display at the Central Ohio Military Museum in Harrisburg, OH.  The AN-PRS-1 was designed to detect anti-tank mines to a depth of 7.5 inches below the surface of the ground.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.

Post-World War Two Era Products:  The following series of photos are from the excellent collection of R.L. Drake Company products on display at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting. 


The museum has a wall of one of its display rooms dedicated to Drake communications equipment.  By default, this is an R.L. Drake Company museum within a museum.  Author's photo.


Mr. Drake was a leader in the development of electronic filters.  While there are no World War Two era filters on display at the museum, the filters below show that they consisted of inductive coils.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.


This is the company's first amateur radio.  The first ten 1-A receivers were assembled in the Baum Opera House in Miamisburg, OH.


This item is misidentified by the museum.  It is an R8B communications receiver and was the last of the long line of radios from the company.  These are highly sought after and command a significant price to purchase.  Author's photo. 


This is the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester, OH.  This building has its own important World War Two story.  It was from here that the United States broadcasted news, both good and bad, to overseas listeners in countries occupied by Germany.  This museum has a significant amount of radio history displayed in it.  It is well worth the visit by those interested not only in radios, but how the Voice of America helped win World War Two.  Author's photo.


Author's photo.


Author's photo.

The R.L. Drake Factories:  The company was located in three different plants and one opera house during its lifetime.  The company started in Dayton, OH during World War Two and remained there until 1958.  It then moved to Miamisburg, OH which is several miles south of Dayton.  Its next plant, which was built by the company for the express purpose of manufacturing communications equipment, was in Franklin, OH, which is one-third of the way from Dayton south towards Cincinnati, OH.  In the end, a company identified as R.L. Drake Holdings was located in a small office complex in Springboro, OH.  This is less than three miles north of former Franklin, OH plant.  R.L. Drake Holdings appears to have gone out of business. 


The company's first plant was at 15 Longworth Street in Dayton, OH.  This area has been redeveloped since R.L. Drake Company occupied its first factory at this location during World War Two and into the 1950s.  It is now part of the Sinclair Community College complex in Dayton.  Image courtesy of Google Maps.


The location of the former Drake plant is now a parking garage.  Image courtesy of Google Maps.


The R.L. Drake Company occupied the Baum Opera House in Miamisburg, OH for a short period in 1957-1958.  The first ten 1-A receivers were built here before the company moved to the plant on Richards Street in Miamisburg.  Image courtesy of Google Maps. 


This Google Maps street view shows the former location of the R.L. Drake Company plant at 540 Richards Street in Miamisburg, OH. 


The R.L. Drake factory address in Franklin, OH was at 230 Industrial Drive.  This is located in an industrial park just east of I-75.  The facility has found a new owner since the demise of R.L. Drake Company.  Author's photo.


This plant was built in three phases as the company expanded and needed more space.  The first phase of 42,500 square feet was completed in 1978.  It housed the machine shop, printed circuit board operation, and the component and final assembly lines.  The office staff and engineering, sales, and service departments initially remained at the Miamisburg plant.  Not only did Mr. Drake design excellent radio equipment, but he made sure his new factory was not only functional but also looked good.  This is the best looking factory in the industrial park.  Author's photo.


This is the right side of the building with respect to the front shown above.  Author's photo.


This is the left side of the building.  Author's photo.


This is the last known location of a company bearing the name R.L. Drake.  This was were R.L. Drake Holdings was located.  The address is 710 Pleasant Valley Drive, Springboro, OH.  Author's photo.


710 Pleasant Valley Drive is the last storefront on the left end of the building.  There is no name on the door and the inside is empty.  This is such a sad end for such a dynamic company that built leading edge radio amateur radio equipment for approximately sixty years in west central Ohio.  Author's photo.

 

 

 

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