Weldon B. Cooke tested his tractor-type biplane with inverted Roberts Motor Company engine on ice-covered Sandusky Bay. By inverting the engine, Cooke claimed there was less resistance. Cooke first used the Roberts Motor Company engine at an international aviation meet in 1912 in Los Angeles, California. Cooke gained fame for himself and Sandusky's Roberts Motor Company when he won the duration and altitude events with a fifty-horsepower, four-cylinder Roberts engine.