LOENING M-8

The Loening M-8 was an American fighter plane from the First World War and the interwar period in a biplane configuration. The drive was provided - in the M-8-0 version - by a single engine Wright Hisso H-3 with a power of 300 hp. The flight of the prototype took place in 1918, and shortly after that, serial production started, which led to the creation of about 50-60 aircraft of this type. The deck armament consisted of two 7.62 mm Lewis machine guns. Plane The M-8 was the first machine produced on a larger scale by Loening Aeronautical Engineering. Originally, it was planned to create as many as 5,000 copies of this aircraft, but due to the quick end of World War I, serial production ended with several dozen copies. Several versions of the M-8 aircraft were created in its course: M-8-0 (fighter version for the US Air Force), M-8-1 (fighter version for the US Navy) or M-8-1S (seaplane with a fixed - float landing gear) for the US Navy).