Before the turn of the decade—probably in 1918 or 1919—Ornstein produced one of his most distinctive works involving tone clusters, "Suicide in an Airplane". Its score calls for a high-speed bass ostinato pattern meant to simulate the sound of engines and capture the sensation of flight. The piece would serve as an inspiration for the "Airplane Sonata" (1923) of George Antheil, who reflected Ornstein's influence in other works such as "Sonata Sauvage" (1923). Writing in 2000, pianist and historian Joseph Smith cited "Suicide in an Airplane" among those pieces of Ornstein's that "represented (and may still represent) the "ne plus ultra" of pianistic violence."