400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760 SAE TECHNICAL PAPER SERIES 982791 The History of Allison Automatic Transmissions For On-Highway Trucks and Buses K. B. Harmon Allison Transmission Div. GMC International Truck and Bus Meeting and Exposition Indianapolis, Indiana November 16-18, 1998Downloaded from SAE International by University of Liverpool, Tuesday, August 14, 2018The appearance of this ISSN code at the bottom of this page indicates SAE’s consent that copies of the paper may be made for personal or internal use of specific clients. This consent is given on the condition,however, that the copier pay a $7.00 per article copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.Operations Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 for copying beyond that permitted by Sec-tions 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying such ascopying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works,or for resale. SAE routinely stocks printed papers for a period of three years following date of publication. Direct your orders to SAE Customer Sales and Satisfaction Department. Quantity reprint rates can be obtained from the Customer Sales and Satisfaction Department.To request permission to reprint a technical paper or permission to use copyrighted SAE publications in other works, contact the SAE Publications Group. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISSN 0148-7191 Copyright 1998 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. Positions and opinions advanced in this paper are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of SAE. The author is solely responsible for the content of the paper. A process is available by which discussions will be printed with the paper if it is published inSAE Transactions. For permission to publish this paper in full or in part, contact the SAE Publications Group. Persons wishing to submit papers to be considered for presentation or publication through SAE should send the manuscript or a 300 word abstract of a proposed manuscript to: Secretary, Engineering Meetings Board, SAE. Printed in USAAll SAE papers, standards, and selected books are abstracted and indexed in the Global Mobility DatabaseDownloaded from SAE International by University of Liverpool, Tuesday, August 14, 20181982791 The History of Allison Automatic Transmissions For On-Highway Trucks and Buses K. B. Harmon Allison Transmission Div. GMC Copyright © 1998 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. ABSTRACT In 1946, the Allison Division of General Motors initiated heavy duty transmission operations at its headquarters inIndianapolis, Indiana. Since that time, Allison hasbecome a world leader in the design, development, andmanufacture of heavy duty automatics for the world truckand bus market. This paper traces the history of thiseffort and discusses key innovations and events at Allisonover the past 50 years. Included are discussions startingwith Allison’s history, its first bus transmission in 1946,and first automatic transmission for on-highway trucks in1954. This is followed by the development of both thesecond and third generation automatics and the innova-tions that are incorporated in these generations. Theeffect of these innovations is expressed in terms of cus-tomer benefits and market growth. Lastly, a view of futuretrends in automatic transmissions is provided. THE HISTORY OF ALLISON The history of Allison Transmission Division, GMC,begins with the history of its founder James A. Allison(Fig. 1). Figure 1. James A. AllisonJim Allison (1872-1928) was the son of Noah Allison who organized the American Creditors Association and sub- sequently the Allison Coupon Company in Indianapolis,Indiana. The coupon company produced coupons whichcould be bought on payday at a discoun