The Liberty L-6 was a six-cylinder water-cooled inline aircraft engine developed in the United States during World War I .
17-646: The Liberty L-6, which developed 200–215 hp, was built by the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corp . and Wright Aeronautical Corp . Since it was based on the same engine design as the more successful Liberty L-12 V-12 liquid-cooled aviation engine, the L-6's resemblance to the Mercedes D.III German aviation engine, the source for the Liberty V-12's own cylinder and valvetrain design, resulted in
34-513: A fixed size. Usually cylindrical in shape, they can be used either in a ship's internal spaces, or externally. In addition to raising sunken vessels, they are also commonly used for long tows, for providing buoyancy to cables and so on. A pontoon bridge (also known as a ponton bridge or floating bridge ) uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. Most, but not all, pontoon bridges are temporary, used in wartime and civil emergencies. Seattle in
51-442: A platform or ramp supported by nautical floats. It is sometimes joined to the shore with a gangway but can be laid out the whole way from the shore to the end. This type of pier maintains a fixed vertical relationship to watercraft secured to it. A salvage pontoon , sometimes known as a lift bag , is a pontoon used to raise a sunken watercraft, or provide additional buoyancy. Salvage pontoons can be either flexible and inflatable, or
68-701: A public domain work of the United States Government. Thomas-Morse Aircraft The Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, until it was taken over by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in 1929. Founded in 1910 by English immigrants William T. Thomas and his brother Oliver W. Thomas as Thomas Brothers Company in Hammondsport, New York , the company moved to Hornell, New York , and moved again to Bath, New York ,
85-708: Is a flattish boat that relies on nautical floats for buoyancy. Common boat designs are a catamaran with two pontoons, or a trimaran with three. In many parts of the world, pontoon boats are used as small vehicle ferries to cross rivers and lakes. Raft-like platforms used for diving and other recreational activities are sometimes anchored at beaches and lake shores, often seasonally. Such platforms may be supported by foam-filled plastic floats or air-filled pontoons, and are known simply as "pontoons" in Australia and New Zealand. They may also be called swim floats. A floating dock , floating pier or floating jetty consists of
102-838: The Royal Naval Air Service and (fitted with floats in place of wheels) for the United States Navy as the SH-4 . They received an order for 24 T-2's from the British, for use in the European war. Because the Curtiss OX engines weren't available, they founded an engine subsidiary, the Thomas Aeromotor Company , which would stress their finances. In 1916, the company won a contract from
119-729: The United States Army Signal Corps for two aircraft for evaluation, the D-5 . In January 1917, financial difficulties led to the company merge with Morse Chain Company (headed by Frank L. Morse ), who was backed financially by H T Westinghouse, becoming Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation , still based in Ithaca. The company then made an attempt at selling training biplanes to the United States Army and
136-633: The United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps developed a modular steel box (pontoon) for the Seabees to use. It was a system of pre-drilled pre-cut angle iron and steel plate that could be assembled anywhere for which they became famous. They used them to facilitate amphibious landings. With the pontoons, Seabees assembled docks, causeways, and rhinos to whatever size needed. They allowed landings on Sicily where no one thought possible. They ferried Patton across
153-592: The American L-6 engine design bearing a close visual resemblance to the German straight-six aviation powerplant in a number of respects, with at least one L-6 even being mounted postwar into a captured Fokker D.VII fighter for testing in the US. The Liberty L-6's smaller displacement of some 825 cu. in. (13.5 liters) versus the late-war German Mercedes D.IIIaü's 903 cubic inches (14.8 liters) do not seem to have handicapped
170-520: The American straight-six design, however, as the "Liberty Six" possessed a 5.42:1 CR , while the D.IIIaü had only a 4.64:1 CR, explaining a good bit of the American powerplant's output level—in addition to the 735.5 watt level for German Pferdestärke metric horsepower, versus the then solely-American-based SAE organization's standard of almost 746 watts per one horsepower. Since the L-6 was too large for mail airplanes and other engines were available,
187-762: The L-6 was canceled after only 52 had been built. In 1920 10 more L-6 engines were ordered, designated L-825, several of which were installed in the Curtiss PN-1 , (only two built), and the Engineering Division TW-1 , (only six built). Hall-Scott also produced a six-cylinder engine using Liberty L-12 components, as the Hall-Scott L-6 . Data from U.S. Army Air Service Information Circular – Performance Test of Fokker D-VII with Liberty Six Engine Comparable engines Related lists This article incorporates text from Liberty L-6 ,
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#1732773343041204-657: The Rhine and put Marines ashore on Okinawa . They would be used during the Korean War in the landing at Inchon in 1950 and again in Lebanon during the 1958 Lebanon crisis . Various objects that make use of floats are often referred to synecdochically as pontoons . Floats make up the multipart hulls of catamarans and trimarans and provide buoyancy for floatplanes , seaplanes and houseboats . They are used in pontoon bridges, floating piers, and floats anchored to
221-899: The US and Kelowna in British Columbia, Canada are two places with permanent pontoon bridges, see William R. Bennett Bridge in British Columbia and these in Seattle: Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge , Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge . A floatplane ( float plane or pontoon plane ) is a type of seaplane with one or more floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. Pontoons for marine industrial uses are usually fabricated from steel. Pontoons as parts of watercraft and aircraft are more typically molded in glass-reinforced plastic . Other techniques include those of traditional wooden boatbuilding as well as plywood over wooden ribs or metal sheets over metal ribs (aluminium or steel), reflecting
238-464: The same at Keuka Lake). In 1913, the name became Thomas Brothers Aeroplane Company and based in Ithaca, New York . On December 7, 1914, the company moved to Ithaca. In 1915, Thomas Brothers built T-2 tractor biplanes (designed by Benjamin D. Thomas , no relation to the brothers and also an Englishman, formerly of Vickers , Sopwith , and Curtiss , and later the company's chief designer) for
255-568: The same year. At the Livingston County Picnic in 1912 The Thomas Brothers Hydro-aeroplane was scheduled to fly the first Hydro-aeroplane in Livingston County but later reported the winds prevented the flight. During 1913, the company operated the affiliated Thomas Brothers School of Aviation at Conesus Lake, McPherson Point in Livingston County, New York state (taking a page from Glenn Curtiss , who did much
272-419: The seabed for recreation or dockage. They are also used in shipbuilding and marine salvage, often deployed uninflated then pressurized to raise a sunken object. In military, floats are used as pontoon bridges or transportation platforms for heavier vehicles or machinery. In popular usage, the term pontoon can refer to any of several of the following objects that make use of nautical floats. A pontoon boat
289-971: Was successful with the S-4 trainer (which included a handful of S-5 floatplanes and a single S-4E ) and MB series of fighters. The last company design was the O-19 observation biplane. In 1929 the company was taken over by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation , becoming the Thomas-Morse Division , and ceased business in 1934. [REDACTED] Media related to Thomas-Morse aircraft at Wikimedia Commons Floats (nautical) Floats (also called pontoons ) are airtight hollow structures, similar to pressure vessels , designed to provide buoyancy in water. Their principal applications are in watercraft hulls , aircraft floats , floating piers , pontoon rhinos , pontoon bridges , and marine engineering applications such as salvage . During World War II
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