The company has built more than 325,000 piston aircraft engines and powers more than half the world's general aviation fleet, both rotary and fixed wing.

[11][12] Around 1883, Gerrit S. Scofield & Frank M. Scofield (advertising agents from New York) bought the Demorest brand and the sewing machine business (the Demorests retained the magazine business), and constructed a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (in Lycoming County).

[8][13] At the urging of the newly established Williamsport Board of Trade, citizens invested US$100, 000 in the new manufacturing facility, which employed 250 people.

[14] With the development of the "New York Bicycle" in 1891 (designed by employee S. H. Ellis), the company diversified its product offerings.

[8][14] Until the early 1900s, the factory produced sewing machines, bicycles, typewriters, opera chairs and other products.

[7] This was a fairly successful design, and was used widely in light aircraft, including Cord's Travel Air.

Undeterred by the O-1230/H-2470's failure, Lycoming turned to an even larger design, the 36-cylinder XR-7755, the largest aviation piston engine ever built.

[17] There was apparently some interest in using it on the Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, but the 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major four-bank radial was used instead.

[16] These companies closed their doors in 1937,[18] after which Lycoming switched to exclusively designing and producing engines for aviation.

[16] In the meantime, the Smith Engineering Corporation, an early manufacturer of controllable pitch propellers had been purchased by Cord and moved to Williamsport.

In the early 1980s, the general aviation market suddenly diminished and Lycoming's piston engine business was significantly impacted.

Attempts were made to move some of the turbine production to Williamsport, but this led to a series of quality control problems and eventually it was abandoned.

Just as production was ready to start, Cessna announced it was halting its small-aircraft business for an indefinite period, and SCORE was cancelled.

The remains of the Deere licenses were later purchased by Rotary Power International, which briefly produced a 340 hp (254 kW) version.