In the 1920s, military aviation authorities were fiercely devoted to heavy, water-cooled engines, viewing air-cooled radial designs as fragile and inefficient novelties. Enter Arthur Lawrance, an eccentric engineer who spent years perfecting a light, air-cooled radial engine despite three separate U. S.
Navy and Army procurement boards explicitly rejecting his proposals. Refusing to abandon his vision, Lawrance persisted until the Navy eventually forced a merger between his small firm and the Wright Aeronautical Corporation. The result of this union was the Wright Whirlwind J-5 engine.
When Charles Lindbergh was planning his famous 1927 transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, he eschewed the heavier, liquid-cooled engines favored by established aviation teams in favor of Lawrance's light, reliable J-5. Lawrance's simple, highly efficient air-cooling system eliminated the radiator, liquid coolant, and pumps that frequently failed on long-distance flights, running flawlessly for 33.
5 continuous hours across the ocean.