Packard - Le Père LUSAC - 11 The LUSAC - 11 ( Lepère United States Army Combat ) was an early American two - seat fighter aircraft . It was a French design , commissioned and built in the United States during World War I and ordered in large numbers by the United States Army Air Corps , but these were cancelled at the end of the war and only thirty were built . The type was used for experimental purposes , setting several altitude records during the 1920s . Design and development . When the U . S . entered World War I , the Signal Corps had just 55 aircraft , none fit for combat . The American Expeditionary Force was equipped with French types , and the LUSAC was part of a plan to build French designs in the U . S . Georges Lepère , a member of the French Aeronautical Mission to the United States , was tasked by the Engineering Division of the United States Army Air Service to design a two - seat escort fighter . His design was a two - bay biplane with upper and lower wings of equal span with forward stagger . It was of wood and fabric construction , with the fuselage consisting of a wooden box girder with plywood covering . It was powered by a 425 hp ( 317 kW ) Liberty L - 12 engine cooled by a radiator faired into the upper wing . Armament was two . 30 inch ( 7 . 62 mm ) machine guns synchronized to fire through the propeller , with two Lewis gun s flexibly mounted on a Scarff ring at the observer ' s cockpit . Large orders for the new design were placed , with Packard , Brewster & Co . , and the Fisher Body Corporation , a total of 3 , 525 ordered . The first prototype made its maiden flight at McCook Field , Dayton , Ohio , on 15 May 1918 . Despite a forced landing due to fuel starvation on its first flight , testing proved successful , with speeds of 136 mph ( 219 km / h ) being reached . Only two prototypes and 25 production aircraft ( by Packard ) were completed by the Armistice that marked the end of World War I , and led to mass cancellation of outstanding orders for the LUSAC - 11 . Three additional aircraft were completed with 420 hp ( 317 kW ) Bugatti 16 engines as LUSAC - 21s . These were delivered in August 1919 . In addition , three strafer aircraft were built , as LUSAGH ( Le Père United States Army Ground Harassment ) , two with Bugatti engines ( LUSAGH - 21 ) , one a Liberty ( LUSAGH - 11 ) . There was also an experimental LUSAC - 11 triplane , the LUSAO - 11 ( Le Père United States Army Observation ) , which used two Liberty L - 12As . Operational history . Two LUSAC - 11s were sent to France for evaluation by the Army Air Service just before the end of the War , which resulted in the type being considered unsuitable for combat . A further aircraft sent for evaluation by the French " Aéronautique Militaire " . The LUSACs saw no squadron service , being used as liaison aircraft by US Military attaches in Europe , and for trials work in the United States . One LUSAC - 11 , fitted with one of the first turbochargers , flown by Major Rudolf Schroeder made an attempt on the world altitude record on 27 February 1920 . Schroeder ' s oxygen supply failed during the attempt , causing the pilot to pass - out , only regaining consciousness close to the ground . He was hospitalized after the near disaster . Nevertheless , the aircraft had reached height of 33 , 113 feet ( 10 , 099 m ) , a new world record . The same aircraft was flown to a height of 34 , 508 ft ( 10 , 518 m ) on 28 September 1921 by Lieutenant John A . Macready , for which he won the Mackay Trophy . The record held for almost two years . Survivors . A single LUSAC - 11 survives today , preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright - Patterson Air Force Base .