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Originating in Iowa to build automobiles, the Duesenberg Motors Corporation of Elizabeth, New Jersey was organized in 1917 by German immigrant Fred Duesenberg, one of America’s leading designers of internal combustion engines. The company’s engines grew from a four-cylinder in-line model to a twelve-cylinder V-type. Apparently the company’s last aircraft engine, Duesenberg designed and built the Model H during World War I with both direct and geared propeller drives. Swinging a giant 4.88 m (16-foot)-diameter propeller, it developed as much as 597 kW (800 horsepower). The Armistice ended the need for such a powerful and costly power plant.