Thirty days after the assembling of the first engine preliminary tests
justified the government in formally accepting the engine as the best
aircraft engine produced in any country. The final tests confirmed the
faith in the new motor.
British and French machines as a rule were not adapted to American
manufacturing methods. They were highly specialized machines, requiring
much hand work from mechanics, who were, in fact, artisans.
The standardized United States aviation engine, produced under
government supervision, said Secretary of War Baker, was expected "to
solve the problem of building first-class, powerful and yet
comparatively delicate aviation engines by American machine methods--the
same standardized methods which revolutionized the automobile industry
in this country."
The manufacture of De Haviland airplanes equipped with Liberty motors
was a factor in the war. One of these De Havilands without tuning up,
made a non-stop trip on November 11, 1918, from Dayton, Ohio, to
Washington, D. C., a distance of 430 miles, in three hours and fifty
minutes. Great battle squadrons of these De Haviland planes equipped
with Liberty motors made bombing raids over the German lines in the
Verdun sector. Others operated as scouting and reconnaissance planes and
as spotters for American artillery.
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