Orenco was an American aircraft manufacturer founded in 1916 in New York as Ordnance Engineering Corporation. Confusion with the

Ordnance Branch The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

led to the shortening of the name in 1919. The company's first project was the

Orenco A Orenco may refer to: * Orenco Station, Hillsboro, Oregon, a planned community in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States *Orenco, Oregon, a former town and current neighborhood in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States *Oregon Nursery Company, a former company ...

in 1917, but they received no orders for it. The

Orenco B The Orenco B was a prototype American fighter aircraft of World War I. It was a single-engined, single-seat biplane that flew in 1918. Although it demonstrated good performance, it did not enter large scale service. Design and development The Ore ...

and C received small orders, but the

Orenco D The Orenco D was an American biplane fighter aircraft, designed by Orenco and built by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. It was the first fighter type of completely indigenous design (as opposed to foreign types or American-built versions ...

was the most successful of their aircraft. The

US Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warf ...

(USAAS) bought four prototypes, but the order for 50 production aircraft was given to the lowest bidder, in this case

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) 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 ...

. Orenco's projects in civil aviation failed as well, due to the number of aircraft available after the end of World War I. The company consequently went out of business.

Aircraft

References

Bibliography

* {{Orenco aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) American companies established in 1916