A comprehensive study of the American Aeroplane building programme of WW1, its promises, its performance, and its failure, together with a summary of what went wrong, and why, including a brief history of military aviation in America prior to the war and details of the Liberty engine and each aircraft type selected for production.

Paul R. Hare, a retired engineer, has made a lifelong study of early aviation, becoming a recognised authority in his field, and has publishing several books and numerous magazine articles various aspects of the first war in the air. He first began researching the failure of the American Aeroplane building Programme over 25 years ago and has lectured on the topic both in The UK and the USA as well as writing a number of articles about it, and about the Liberty engine that was crucial to it.