| R. P. M. = revolutions made by propellers in a minute. | Climb. | Speed. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altitude. | Time. | R. P. M. | Miles an hour. | R. P. M. |
| min. sec. | ||||
| Ground | 0 0 | 1,500 | 136 | 1,800 |
| 10,000 feet | 10 35 | 1,520 | 132 | 1,740 |
| 15,000 feet | 19 15 | 1,500 | 118 | 1,620 |
| 20,000 feet | 41 | 1,480 | 102 | 1,550 |
Here at last was a machine that performed brilliantly in the air and contained great possibilities for quantity production, because it was designed from the start to fit American manufacturing methods. We placed orders for 3,525 Lepere machines. None of the factories, however, had come into production with the Lepere on November 11, 1918. Seven sample machines had been turned out and put through every test. It was the belief of those in authority that at last the training and technique of the best aeronautical engineers of France had been combined with the Liberty, probably the best of all aerial engines; and it was believed that the spring of 1919 would see the Yankee fliers equipped with American fighting machines that would be superior to anything they would be required to meet.
Nor were these expectations without justification. The weeks and months following the declaration of the armistice and extending through to the spring of 1919 were to witness the birth of a whole brood of new typically American designs of airplanes of which the Lepere was the forerunner. In short, when the armistice brought the great aviation enterprise to an abrupt end, the American industry had fairly caught that of Europe, and America designers were ready to match their skill against that of the master builders of France, Great Britain, Italy, and the central powers.
The Lepere 2-seated fighter was quickly followed by two other Lepere models—one of them, known as the Lepere C-21, being armored, and driven by a Bugatti engine, and the other a triplane driven by two Liberty engines and designed to be a day bomber. Then the first American designed single-seat pursuit planes began making their appearance—the Thomas-Morse pursuit plane, its 164 miles an hour at ground level, making it the fastest airplane ever tested by our Government, if it were not the speediest plane ever built; the Ordnance Engineering Corporation's Scout, an advanced training plane; and several others. In two-seater fighting planes there was the Loening monoplane, an extremely swift and advanced type. There were several other new two-seaters designed experimentally in some instances and some of them giving brilliant promise.
THE LOENING MONOPLANE.
This is one of the new distinctively American planes.
THE LOENING TWO-PLACE PURSUIT PLANE.