Of the combat engines produced to November 29, 1918 (which classification includes all of the Liberties, the two more powerful types of the Hispano-Suiza, and the Bugatti engine), 5,327 went to the various airplane plants for installation in planes, 5,030 of them were sent directly to the American Expeditionary Forces, 3,746 were turned over to the Navy, 1,090 went to the several allied nations, and 941 were taken by the training fields.
The shipment of aviation engines to Europe, however, does not imply the immediate use of them by our airplane squadrons at the front. In this report shipment to the American Expeditionary Forces means the shipment of engines from the American factories producing them. As a matter of fact several months usually elapsed from the dispatch of an engine from an American shop until it actually reached the Air Service in France, and even then another month might be required to put the engine into actual service. As a result, of the 5,000 and more aviation engines sent to France by the American engine producers, outside of those installed in their planes, less than 3,000 are recorded in the annals of the American Expeditionary Forces as having been received by them up to the end of December, 1918, the missing 2,000 being in that period either somewhere in transit or in warehouses on the route to their destination.
It is of interest to note what makes of foreign engines were used by our airmen in the war operations. An appended table shows the list of those received, their names, their rated powers, the numbers received month by month, and the totals. The records of the American Expeditionary Forces show that the squadrons in all received from all sources 4,715 aviation engines up to the end of the year 1918, but it should be borne in mind that this figure does not include more than 2,000 engines, principally Liberties, recorded on this side of the Atlantic as having been shipped to the Army abroad. Of the 4,715 engines noted as received, 2,710 were Liberties.
None of the foreign engines used by our pilots even approached the Liberty in power. The nearest in power were a Renault and an Hispano-Suiza, both rated at 300 horsepower.
| Name and horse-power. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Total. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hispano-Suiza 180 | 8 | 11 | 19 | ||||||||||
| Hispano-Suiza 220 | 3 | 17 | 164 | 134 | 66 | 15 | 399 | ||||||
| Hispano-Suiza 300 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Renault 190 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 26 | |||||||||
| Renault 300 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 3 | 32 | 20 | 83 | ||||||
| Le Rhone 80 | 10 | 19 | 85 | 114 | |||||||||
| Le Rhone 120 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 43 | 43 | 114 | |||||||
| Clerget 120 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 29 | 72 | ||||||
| Clerget 140 | 10 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Salmson 230 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 23 | 95 | 92 | 92 | 8 | 322 | ||||
| Fiat 300 | 23 | 10 | 150 | 183 | |||||||||
| Gnome 150 | 12 | 20 | 66 | 86 | 22 | 200 | 406 | ||||||
| Peugeot 230 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Beardmore 160 | 14 | 14 | |||||||||||
| Total | 16 | 16 | 30 | 22 | 160 | 324 | 357 | 312 | 528 | 1,765 |
CHAPTER V.
AVIATION EQUIPMENT AND ARMAMENT.
On one of the early days in the great war a Russian aviator, aloft in one of the primitive airplanes of that time, was engaged in locating the positions of the enemy when he chanced upon a German birdman engaged in a similar mission.