While Kiffin was learning to fly, several Americans were already flying combat missions with the French. Several of them were working to try to get the French to group the American volunteers together into one escadrille (squadron). One of these American pilots was Bill Thaw. The son of a Pittsburgh millionaire, Thaw was flying a Caudron G4 like the one shown here. (Note the rotary engines.) (Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dugny.Lt_Michas._Caudron_G.4_C_1293–Fonds_Berthel%C3%A9-_49Fi1256.jpg)