Although not powerful (the largest wartime version produced 130 horsepower (97 kW)), they were dependable rotary engines.In most respects the Le Rhône engines were typical rotary engines, so that the The copper induction tubes had their crankcase ends located in different places on the 80 and 110 horsepower (60 and 82 kW) versions; the 80 hp versions had them entering the crankcase in a location A complicated slipper bearing system was used in the Le Rhône engine. It also employed three concentric grooves, designed to accept slipper bearings from the other cylinders. The other connecting rods used inner-end bronze shoes, which were shaped to fit in the grooves.
An operative Le Rhone 9C is shown at the Museo Nacional de Aeronautica in Buenos Aires Argentina.
General rotary engine lubrication information from They powered a number of military aircraft types of the First World War. There are other reproductions of Dr 1's flying original Le Rhône engines, as well as the restored Thomas Morse Scouts in the United States. The master rod was of a split-type, which permitted assembly of the connecting rods. Le Rhône engines were also produced under license worldwide. The engine has been test-run and is described at Several enthusiasts are using original Le Rhône engines for World War I replica aircraft today. A flying example can be seen at the Pioneer Flight Museum, Kingsbury Texas in a replica Fokker Dr 1. pioneerflightmuseum.org The engine had previously been flown in an original Thomas Morse Scout, which is now under restoration with another Le Rhône 80 hp engine planned for that flying aircraft. Both the restored Shuttleworth Collection's airworthy Sopwith Pup and the 1960s-built reproduction Pup of the Owl's Head Transportation Museum (originally from Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome) are each powered by 80 hp Le Rhône 9C rotary engines, and fly regularly throughout the summer months. Le Rhône was the name given to a series of popular rotary aircraft engines produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône and the successor company of Gnome et Rhône. The master rod was numbered as number one and the shoes of numbers two, five and eight rode in the outer groove, the shoes of three, six and nine in the middle groove and four and seven in the inner groove.
Although this system was complex, the Le Rhône engines worked very well.The Le Rhône engines used an unconventional valve actuation system, with a single centrally-pivoting As well as production by Société des Moteurs Gnome et Rhône, which had bought out 80 hp (60 kW) le Rhône engines were made under license in the United States by Union Switch and Signal of A reproduction of the Oberursel has been manufactured by The Vintage Aviator Company in New Zealand in very limited numbers by reverse engineering an original Oberursal engine, presumably for their own project aircraft.