ACCESSORIES
Equipment like magnetos, starters, governors, oil pumps,
hydraulic and vacuum pumps are loosely termed "accessories"
in the aviation game. Our pilot William Russell Jack worked
for his father, William S. Jack, whose company was a supplier
of a selection of accessories during the Golden Age,
into WWII and beyond. Young Jack was Vice President of Jack
& Heintz, Inc. of Cleveland, OH (sometimes referred to as
J.&H. or Jahco), which his father ran with egalitarian brio.
Based in Cleveland, OH, W.R. Jack landed twice at Tucson,
on August 14, 1932 westbound, and again on August 22, 1932
eastbound, on what looked like a week-long business trip
to the west coast. Both times he flew Great Lakes NC863K.
There is no notation in the Register to suggest the purpose
of his flight.
William Russell Jack was born November 3, 1909 at Cleveland,
OH, making him a youth of barely 23 when he visited Tucson
as a private pilot. He married in 1934 (Paula Gerstenberger) and had one son. From
1933 to at least 1938, he was Treasurer and a Sales and Service
Engineer for The Pump Engineering Service Corp. (PESCO),
his father's company at the time, before he organized Jahco.
He had a life of privilege, attending private secondary
schools and being educated through college at Southern Methodist
University. He attended the Dallas Aviation School for his
transport and ground training. He used his education and
training in his work, writing various reports on service
problems on aircraft accessories and use of special equipment
in manufacture and testing.
Whereas the information at the NASM (left sidebar) is sparse
for William R. Jack, there is online information about
his father William S. Jack. During WWII, Jack the elder stood
out as an innovative and charitable boss. An in-house angel,
he showed up to competitors and the U.S. government as a
maverick. In the press, Time
Magazine of December 14, 1942 had this to say about
him:
Even when the outlook was blackest, short, cocky
William S. Jack always knew everything would
turn out all right. The worst was nine months ago when
the profit-probing Vinson committee rooted out the
fantastic salaries and bonuses of Jack & Heintz
Inc., catapulted President Jack smack into the biggest
and juiciest profit scandal of the year. But last week
the scandal was forgotten, and upstart J. & H.
was riding high as the world's largest maker of aviation
starters and automatic pilots.
The Methods. For this snappy comeback all nosegays
go to production-ace Jack and his incredible business
policies. J. & H.'s five plants — four in
Bedford, Ohio and one in Cleveland — are a nifty
combination of a college campus, a workman's paradise
and zooming production. J. & H. has a band to rival
Ohio State's, victory song and cheerleaders, boisterous
parties to celebrate production records.
Every employee is called an "associate," is known only
by his first name as soon as he gets on the payroll.
There are no time clocks and no docking for tardiness.
The associates talk and smoke whenever they like, paste
Petty girls on their machines if the curves inspire
them, get popular jazz over the loudspeaker system,
drink free coffee or nibble free candy bars. To top
it off Host Jack hands everyone vitamin pills and anti-cold
tablets daily, gives free medical and dental care,
hands out modest bonuses with calendar-like regularity.
The Results. Most Cleveland munitions makers think
the customs and working habits at J. & H. are as
preposterous as the bonuses which put the company in
the national spotlight. Bill Jack has only one answer — production.
Roars he: "We're turning out more per man than anybody
. . . and more stuff per square foot of plant than
any other plant in the country." J. & H. started
exactly two years ago with 90 employes, a handful of
machines in a small Bedford factory and a newly designed
aviation starter. The War Department liked it well
enough to order 1,000 at $600 each. Next the Army asked
J. & H. to mass-produce the famed Sperry automatic
pilot. J. & H. countered with an offer to design
and produce its own automatic pilot. In no time at
all J. & H. had a Government O.K., was mass-producing
an accurate light-weight automatic pilot costing one-third
less than Sperry's. Meanwhile Jack slashed the price
of starters to $350, made a deal to cut contract prices
by a total of $9,500,000.
Now J. & H. has 4,000 associates, and its 1942
output will hit $40,000,000. That is not all. At Government
request the company is producing flight instruments,
aviation accessories and potent 400-amp. generators
for planes still on the drawing boards. All this work
has pushed J. & H.'s backlog to a mighty $240,000,000,
got Jack predicting production of $120,000,000 next
year. And at J. & H. haste does not mean waste—the
delivered product is so perfect that on Nov. 12 the
Air Corps discontinued separate inspections, gushed: "Testing
equipment and production methods used are especially
commendable."
The Man. Bill Jack quit grammar school to learn the
die-cutting trade, later took turns as a magician's
helper, a baseball catcher, a prize fighter. Then he
became business agent for Local 83, International Association
of Machinists, proved his organizing knack by boosting
membership from 61 to 3,600 in four years. But he liked
manufacturing better than union-eering, quickly bought,
developed and resold half a dozen small companies.
Most successful—outside of J. & H.—was
Cleveland's Pump Engineering Service Corp., which Jack
swapped for 34,666 shares of Borg-Warner Corp., just
before he organized J. & H. with tall, bald Ralph
Heintz, a born engineer who had some snazzy ideas about
aviation starters.
A real success at 54, Jack still likes the floppy,
open-collared shirts, breezy sport shoes and pungent
phrases picked up in his prizefight days. A prodigious
worker, he rarely sleeps more than four hours a night.
The Vinson committee did change Jack's ideas about
salaries. Said he of the salary-limitation order: '.
. . We'll back [this] to the limit. If [President Roosevelt]
says no salary at all it will be no salary. . . . There's
only one thing we'll be satisfied with—that's
winning the war.'" |
Jack the elder published an article describing his management
methods (reference left sidebar), but, post-war
his relationships with the powers that be were no better,
as this (December 23, 1946) article in Time
Magazine illustrates. In the early 1950's, William S. and
his wife endured a tax adjudication (PDF
download).
The National Air & Space Museum (Dulles facility) exhibits
several examples of accessories produced during the 1930s
by Pump Engineering Service Corp. Namely:
PESCO Equipment at the NASM
Type C-7 Fuel Pump Cutaway
Pump Engineering Service Corp. (PESCO)
U.S., 1930s |
Hydraulic Oil Pump
Pump Engineering Service Corp. (PESCO)
U.S., 1930s-1940s |
Gear-Type Oil Pump Cutaway
Pump Engineering Service Corp. (PESCO)
U.S., 1930s-1940s |
Type B-1A Vacuum Pump Cutaway
Pump Engineering Service Corp. (PESCO)
U.S., 1930s |
On the cusp of WWII, Flying and Popular Aviation (PA) magazine, September, 1941, featured this full-page advertisement.
PESCO Advertisement, Flying & Popular Aviation Magazine, September, 1941 (Source: PA)
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I have no information about pilot Jack's personal life or a date of his passing. If you can help, please let me KNOW.
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Dossier 2.1.103
UPLOADED: 05/19/07 REVISED: 07/14/14
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