Fred Duesenberg served as the company's chief engineer, with his brother, Augie, as assistant engineer. The Loew-Victor Company also made an agreement to have the Duesenbergs produce automobile and airplane engines for military use for the American, British, Italian, and Russian governments during World War I. The Duesenberg brothers moved to New York City in 1917 to supervise operations at a new manufacturing site in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that was constructed especially for building aviation and marine engines. The Duesenberg brothers' experience working with Ettore Bugatti's airplane engines led to changes in their own engineering ideas. The Bugatti engine served as a catalyst for refinements to the design of the Duesenberg Straight-8 engine, an eight-cylinder engine with a single, overhead camshaft.