The Orenco B was a prototype American

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

of World War I. It was a single-engined, single-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

that flew in 1918. Although it demonstrated good performance, it did not enter large scale service.

Design and development

The

Ordnance Engineering Corporation Orenco was an American aircraft manufacturer founded in 1916 in New York as Ordnance Engineering Corporation. Confusion with the Ordnance Branch of the United States Army led to the shortening of the name in 1919. The company's first project was t ...

Baldwin Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend". People * Baldwin (name) Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, Qu ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, designed and built its first aircraft, the Type A, a two-seat trainer in 1917, although no production followed. To design its second aircraft, a single-seat fighter, it acquired the services of Frenchman Etienne Dormoy, a member of the French Aeronautical Mission to the United States, who had previously worked for SPAD.Angelucci and Bowers 1987, p. 378. The design, the Type B, was a single-engined tractor

of wooden construction. It was powered by a single

Gnome Monosoupape 9N The ''Monosoupape'' (French language, French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single p ...

rotary engine and had two-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

wings. Planned armament was three Marlin machine guns, one under the upper wing and two under the lower wings.Green and Swanborough 1994, p. 462. The first prototype made its maiden flight in early 1918. It demonstrated good performance, reaching a speed of , and four aircraft were ordered by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, along with five of the closely related Type C fighter trainer, the first being delivered in March 1918.Angelucci and Bowers 1987, pp. 378, 380. Despite this, the type was not adopted further, as the 160 hp Gnome did not go into production in the United States, and the US Army decided to build European fighters under license instead. It is uncertain whether all four Type Bs were completed, with some sources indicating only one type B having been built.

Specifications

Notes

Citations

References

* * * {{Orenco aircraft 1910s United States fighter aircraft B Biplanes Rotary-engined aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1918 Single-engined tractor aircraft