When France was invaded in WWI, the well-known car manufacturer Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti, escaped to Paris where, in 1915, he joined two four-cylinder engines to form the 8-cylinder inline 210 CV engine. (110 hp according to other information on the T-50B car engine that was used in Bugatti's aircraft).

-In 1916, this engine is built in Italy by Diatto in Turin. Delaunay-Belleville did the same under license in France itself.

-The Bugatti logo was always associated with their top-quality cars.

"Logo Bugatti"

-The inline engine was structurally simple with rather "square" laterally shapes and it was frontally narrow and tall.

"Bugatti 8-cylinder"

-The front view allows us to see a certain slenderness.

“Bugatti 8, frontal”

-Interestingly in 1913 there was a project between Ettore and Roland Garros to cross the Atlantic, and it was then when the idea of this motor was born. Roland was in charge of the aircraft and Bugatti of the engine.

-This eight-cylinder engine was liquid cooled. The cylinders had a 110 mm diameter by 160 mm stroke, giving a displacement of 12 liters. The compression ratio was 5: 1.

-The power output at 1,850 rpm was 210 CV, but at 2,160 rpm it went up to 250 CV.

"Bugatti 16-C"

-In 1916, they started with the 16-C and after that came the U16 as a result of joining two 8-cylinder engines in a single casing with a front gear box. With a total of 16 cylinders they delivered 400 CV at 2,100 rpm.

-The reduction gear had a 3 to 2 ratio.

"Bugatti U-16"

-The development of these engines allowed to install a French Puteaux 37 mm cannon firing through the propeller shaft, which we can guess from the photo, and that we can see clearly on this U-engine's front diagram.

"Esquema Bugatti en U"

-These engines were built in the USA by Duesenberg under the name King-Buggatti, evolving there in certain details.

-Breguet, as we have seen in their section, made versions and couplings of these engines.

"King-Bugatti"

-The French government bought the license so that Peugeot manufactured it for the Morane-Saulnier 31-C2.

-These engines have four valves per cylinder and each cylinder row was independent, with its oil pump, carburetor (2 Zenith) and double magneto.

-Therefore, in case one row failed, the propeller was still spinning driven by the other row of cylinders.

The 32 cylinders versions, the 32-cylinder H-engines with an output power of 1,000 CV or "Quadimoteur",  were adapted by Breguet.

"Breguet-Bugatti, en Paris"

-The "Quadimoteur" can be admired at the Air and Space Museum (Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace) in Le Bourget, north of Paris. (H-32-B).

-There is evidence that in 1938 and 1939 two engines were adapted for aircraft like Type 50B and Type 60.

-Summarizing, Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan in 1881. He was a car lover and had mechanical skills. He designed his first car in 1900 and successive projects led him to join others and create French-Dietrich near Strasbourg.

-In 1910, Bugatti formed his own company near Molsheim, where he built a series of advanced and expensive sports cars.

From appendix 7: The great 16-cylinder Bugatti engine with two rows of eight cylinders (see King-Bugatti and Bugatti) that delivered 420/460 CV was mounted on a Morane-Saulnier AN.

-The engine made the fairing spectacular. (1917).

“Morane Saulnier ANL” (PiP-fmr)

-According to the engine brand, the aircraft variation designation was given as follows:

-ANB, with 450 CV Bugatti U-16 engine,
-ANL, with 400 CV Liberty engine.
-ANR, with 450 CV Renault 12Kb engine.
-ANS, with 530 CV. Salmson engine.

From appendix 9: On the 110P plane, two Bugatti car engines were installed. These were 8-cylinder, in line, T-50B model engines, which were similar to those used in Grand Prix racing.

"Planos del Bugatti 110P"

-Both engines in tandem had asymmetric transmissions on both sides of the pilot to a front gear box driving two contra-rotating propellers.