Singer - You ride around on a sewing machine?

My wife's Grandfather flew in seaplanes (can't remember exactly what at this moment) in WW1 (after he graduated from airships), and these were powered by Singer engines, which had a nasty habit of stopping. They could sometimes be restarted by diving with feathered props and then throwing the props back in again, but he ditched in the North sea at least twice. They had pigeons with them to release with their last known position in the hope that someone would rescue them. It seemed to work.

Rod