Curtiss OX-5

Curtiss OX-5

The OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first US-designed engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917. It nevertheless found widespread use on a number of aircraft, perhaps the most famous being the JN-4 "Jenny". Some 12,600 units were built through early 1919. The wide availability of the engine in the surplus market made it common until the 1930s, although it was considered unreliable for most of its service life. Today the engine can be found powering many Edwardian automobile racing specials on the historic racing scene.