Harold E. Morehouse worked at McCook Field for the U.S. Army from February 1920 to September 1925. While there, he developed the two horizontally-opposed Morehouse engines described in this section, at least partly on his own time. After he joined the Wright Aeronautical Corp., his second engine was produced under the Wright banner as the Wright-Morehouse WM-80 and the manufacturing rights later were sold to the Lincoln Aircraft Company. The Lincoln Aircraft Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska was a well-known aircraft manufacturer of the 1920's and 1930's. They merged with the American Eagle Aircraft Corp. of Kansas City, Kansas in 1931. Lincoln offered the WM-80 as the Lincoln Rocket. At Wright, Morehouse worked on the J-5, the original Cyclone, the V-1456, and the J-6 series. He joined Driggs Aircraft Company and the Michigan Aero-Engine Corp. early in 1929. There he designed two Michigan Rover inline 4-cylinder, inverted, air-cooled engines (TC = 25 on 6/8/29 and TC = 37 on 1/4/30). In September 1932, Morehouse joined Continental, where he worked on the A-40, the O-1430, and the early development of the A-50. He joined Erco in April 1937 and developed their inline 4-cylinder, inverted, air-cooled engine (TC = 209 on 2/20/39). Finally, he joined Lycoming in October 1939 after the O-145 had been developed initially. Morehouse was instrumental in the development of the O-235, O-290, O-350, O-435, and succeeding Lycoming piston engines until his retirement at the end of 1965. (S, ELT, BGE, BGP)
O-42 -- {3.0 / 3.0 / 42.4} / {76.2 / 76.2 / 695}
2cyl; M-42; 12hp@2000rpm-20@3000; 1924; Wt = 51#; TC = none.
Single-ignition engine; built for Morehouse by Steel Products Engineering Company of Springfield, Ohio, who also built engines for other engine designers.
S; ELT.
Applications: (US) Lighter-than-air (LTA) inflation pump.
O-80 -- {3.75 / 3.625 / 80.1} / {95.3 / 92.1 / 1312}
2cyl; WM-80, later the Lincoln Rocket; 28hp@2500rpm; 1925-1933; Wt = 85#; TC = none.
Single-ignition engine; optionally geared to 0.365 with a 14# weight increase.
Ae39; AprgHBSu68; S; ELT.
Applications: (US) Driggs Dart (U.S. Army Air Service); Hansen (Heath derivative) Baby Bullet #1 [11351]; Kreider-Reisner Model A Midget; Roché/Dohse flivver (predecessor of the Aeronca C-2).