 The U.S. Navy badly needed light, reliable engines for its carrierborne aircraft.As a means of pressuring Wright and other companies into developing radial engines, it gave a contract to Lawrance for 200 of the J-1 radial and ceased buying the liquid-cooled Wright-Hispano engines.At the urging of the Army and Navy the Wright Aeronautical Corporation bought the Lawrance Company, and subsequent engines were known as Wright radials.