2-839-540 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Union Gas Engine Company of Oakland, California began producing marine engines in 1885, and started experimental construction of an aircraft engine in 1915. In 1917, under Army and Navy supervision, that engine, with a pusher propeller, was the first to pass the U.S. government 50-hour test, which consisted of eight full throttle, six hour runs on consecutive days, followed by a tilting test. Union engines were built primarily for use in lighter-than-air craft. A Union engine of this type powered a non-stop record 1,760 km (1,100 mile) flight of 25 hours from New York to Newfoundland on the U.S.N. Airship C-5 in 1919, an apparent trial for a later unaccomplished trans-Atlantic flight.