Loening M-8

Powered by a Hispano Suiza 300 h.p. V8 water cooled engine, the M-8 did in deed win an order for 5,000 which was cancelled at the end of WW I. Two were delivered to the USAAS and later one was developed into the single seat PW-2.
The U.S.Navy took one prototype and 10 production models as the M-8-0. Later they took a second variant the M-8-1, 36 of which were ordered from the Naval Aircraft Factory with a further six being built as a sea plane as the M-8-S.

Span 32'9" Length 24'0" Height 6'7" Wing area 229 sq ft
Empty weight 1,623 lb Gross weight 2,068 lb

Max speed 145 mph Service ceiling 22,000 ft

Armament 2 x .30 Lewis guns

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This was a very fast (for it's day) two-seat fighter, intended as the U.S. equivalent to the RAF's Bristol Fighter. The USAAS ordered 5,000 of these airplanes, but only a few were built before the order was cancelled when WW-I ended.

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Dear Sir
I'm building this small plane (Loening M-8), but I don't have the information about the colours. can you help me?

Best Regards Pedro Béraud

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On 22 Oct. 1922 Lt. Harold Harris was testing this plane equipped with experimental ailerons and hassling with a Thomas Morse scout when, in a tight turn, the ailerons went into flutter and the plane disintegrated. Harris jumped and became the first US military pilot to be saved by a parachute (which he only grudgingly put on that morning). This happened at McCook Field in Dayton, OH 125 years to the day after the first successful descent by parachute from a baloon in 1797 in France.

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