Lowe, Willard & Fowler Engineering Company

Last updated
Lowe, Willard and Fowler Engineering Company [note 1]
Industry Aerospace
Founded 1915
FoundersEdward Lowe Jr.
Charles F. Willard
Robert G. Fowler
Defunct 1924
Fate Bankruptcy
Headquarters Long Island City (1915 - 1916)
College Point (1916 - 1924)
Key people
J. M. Fitzgerland (Pres./director)
A. H. Flint (VP/General Manager)
R. J. Hoffman (Engineer)
Glenn D. Mitchell (Engineer)
Products Aircraft
LWF model F (a modified model V) which made the first flight with a Liberty engine LWF model F - First Liberty motor in flight, 21 Aug 1917 - NARA - 17341717 (crop).jpg
LWF model F (a modified model V) which made the first flight with a Liberty engine

The Lowe, Willard & Fowler Engineering Company was a College Point, New York City based manufacturer of airplanes founded in December 1915 named for its founders, Edward Lowe Jr., Charles F. Willard, and Robert G. Fowler, [1]

Contents

Willard had been previously employed by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and Aeromarine and had developed a technique for molding laminated wood to form a monocoque fuselage while Fowler had been the first person to fly west-to-east across the United States. [2] Lowe arranged the majority of the financing, while Fowler recruited Willard.

Fowler and Willard departed the company shortly afterwards in 1916 and Lowe renamed the firm the L-W-F Engineering Company." [3] After their departure from the company, the companies initials were repurposed to refer either to either Laminated Wood Fuselage or Linen, Wire and Fabric. The company was reorganized after Lowe was forced out by company backers in 1917. [2]

Aside from its own designs, of which only the model V and its derivatives, and the J-2 (a US Dehavilland DH-4 modified into a twin engine aircraft) saw series production, LWF built the Curtiss HS-2L, Martin NBS-1 and Douglas DT-2 under licence, and they modified 63 US Dehavilland DH-4As into DH-4Bs.

Following the reduction or cancellation of orders following the end of World War I and the failure of its post-war designs to win orders, the company declared bankruptcy in 1924. [4]

Aircraft

AircraftYearNumber built
LWF Designs
Model V 1916136
Model F 19171
Reconnaissance 19171
Model G 19181
Model H Owl 19201
Model J-2 Twin DH 191920
Model L Butterfly 19201
XT-3 19231
MO-1 unk.1
XNBS-2 n/a0
Total built:163
Licence-built/modified
Curtiss HS-2L 1917249 [note 2]
US Dehavilland DH-4B (modified)?63
Douglas DT-2/SDW-1192220
Martin NBS-1 192135
Total built/modified:367

See also

Related Research Articles

The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flying boat</span> Aircraft equipped with a boat hull for operation from water

A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though the fuselage provides buoyancy, flying boats may also utilize under-wing floats or wing-like projections extending from the fuselage for additional stability. Flying boats often lack landing gear which would allow them to land on the ground, though many modern designs are convertible amphibious aircraft which may switch between landing gear and flotation mode for water or ground takeoff and landing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaplane</span> Aircraft with an undercarriage capable of operating from water surfaces

A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteristics: floatplanes and flying boats; the latter are generally far larger and can carry far more. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are in a subclass called amphibious aircraft, or amphibians. Seaplanes were sometimes called hydroplanes, but currently this term applies instead to motor-powered watercraft that use the technique of hydrodynamic lift to skim the surface of water when running at speed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company</span> 1916–1929 aircraft manufacturer in the United States

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades, it merged with the Wright Aeronautical to form Curtiss-Wright Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Aircraft Factory</span>

The Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) was established by the United States Navy in 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was created to help solve aircraft supply issues which faced the Navy Department upon the entry of the U.S. into World War I. The US Army’s requirements for an enormous quantity of airplanes created a decided lack of interest among aircraft manufacturers in the Navy's requirements for a comparatively small quantity of aircraft. The Navy Department concluded that it was necessary to build a Navy-owned aircraft factory in order to assure a part of its aircraft supply; to obtain cost data for the department’s guidance in its dealings with private manufacturers; and to have under its own control a factory capable of producing experimental designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aeronca Aircraft</span>

Aeronca, contracted from Aeronautical Corporation of America, located in Middletown, Ohio, is a US manufacturer of engine components and airframe structures for commercial aviation and the defense industry, and a former aircraft manufacturer. From 1928 to 1951, the company was a major producer of general aviation aircraft, and also produced the engines for some of their early designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hall XPTBH</span> 1937 US experimental torpedo-bomber seaplane

The Hall XPTBH was a prototype American twin-engined seaplane, submitted to the United States Navy by the Hall Aluminum Aircraft Corporation in response to a 1934 specification for new bomber and scout aircraft. Constructed in an innovative fashion that made extensive use of aluminum, the XPTBH proved successful in flight testing, but failed to win favor with the U.S. Navy. No production contract was awarded, and the single aircraft built served in experimental duties before its destruction in a hurricane during 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burgess Company</span>

The Burgess Company was a U.S. airplane manufacturer between 1910 and 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert G. Fowler</span> American aviator

Robert George Fowler was an early aviation pioneer and was the first person to make a west-to-east transcontinental flight in stages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airco DH.9</span> 1917 bomber aircraft family by Airco

The Airco DH.9 – also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH.9 – was a British single-engined biplane bomber developed and deployed during the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Aircraft</span> 1920–1934 aircraft manufacturer in the United States

Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, also known as Fokker-America and Atlantic-Fokker, was a US subsidiary of the Dutch Fokker company, responsible for sales and information about Fokker imports, and eventually constructing various Fokker designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayton-Wright Company</span> 1917-1923 aircraft manufacturer in Ohio, USA

The Dayton-Wright Company was formed in 1917, on the declaration of war between the United States and Germany, by a group of Ohio investors that included Charles F. Kettering and Edward A. Deeds of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO). Orville Wright lent his name and served as a consultant, but other than that, the location of one of its three factories in the original Wright Company factory buildings in Dayton, Ohio was the only connection to the Wright brothers. In addition to plant 3, Dayton-Wright operated factories in Moraine and Miamisburg, Ohio. During the course of the war, Dayton-Wright produced about 3,000 DH-4s, as well as 400 Standard SJ-1 trainers. The company was hurt by the reputation of the DH-4s it produced as "flaming coffins" or "flying coffins", although they were not in reality more subject to catching fire than other aircraft, and by scandals it faced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monocoupe Aircraft</span>

Monocoupe Aircraft was a manufacturer of light airplanes originally produced in the late 1920s and 30s. They introduced relatively inexpensive, compact, and sporty aircraft in an era of large, maintenance intensive, open-cockpit biplanes, and the Monocoupe series was one of the first economical, closed-cabin, two-seat, light aircraft in the United States. As a result, the Monocoupe soon became a successful brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred V. Verville</span> American aviation pioneer and aircraft designer

Alfred Victor Verville was an American aviation pioneer and aircraft designer who contributed to civilian and military aviation. During his forty-seven years in the aviation industry, he was responsible for the design and development of nearly twenty commercial and military airplanes. Verville is known for designing flying boats, military racing airplanes, and a series of commercial cabin airplanes. His planes were awarded with the Pulitzer Speed Classic Trophy in 1920 and 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Étienne Dormoy</span>

Étienne Dormoy was an aeronautical engineer and a designer of aircraft.

The L-W-F XNBS-2 was a planned 1920s biplane night bomber designed by the Lowe, Willard & Fowler Engineering Company for the United States Army Air Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haskelite</span> Brand of plywood by Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation

Haskelite is the brand name of a plywood, once made by the Michigan-based Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation. It was made from waterproof glue developed by Henry L. Haskell. The moldable plywood was originally called Ser-O-Ply. It was used in the construction of various vehicles including military tanks, boats, airplanes, buses, trucks, and automobiles. The plywood was manufactured with different characteristics depending on particular needs and then given a brand name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LWF model V</span> Type of aircraft

The LWF model V is an American two-seat reconnaissance and training biplane built during World War One, and used for a short period afterwards. A variant specially built to test the Liberty L-12 aircraft engine, the model F, was the first aircraft to fly powered by that widely used engine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L-W-F Model H Owl</span> 1920s American biplane

The L-W-F Model H Owl was a large American twin-boom trimotor biplane designed and built by LWF Engineering as a mail plane in 1920, but after being rejected for that role, the single prototype was sold to the United States Army Air Service for evaluation as a bomber but failed to secure any orders.

References

Notes

  1. Later reorganized as the L-W-F Engineering Company
  2. Order for 299, but 50 cancelled

Citations

  1. Woodhouse, January 1920, p.992
  2. 1 2 Pearce, William. "LWF Model H Owl Mail Plane / Bomber". oldmachinepress.com. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  3. Pattillo, 1998, p.26
  4. Eckland, K.O. (2 September 2008). "American airplanes: Lo - Lu". aerofiles.com. Retrieved 12 February 2020.

Bibliography