Engine designers knew that, according to the Otto cycle, power and efficiency increased with compression ratio, but experience with early gasolines during World War I showed that higher compression ratios increased the risk of abnormal combustion, producing lower power, lower efficiency, hot-running engines, and potentially severe engine damage. To compensate for these poor fuels, early engines used low compression ratios, which required relatively large, heavy engines to produce limited power and efficiency. The Wright brothers' first gasoline engine used a compression ratio as low as 4.7-to-1, developed only from , and weighed . This was a major concern for aircraft designers and the needs of the aviation industry provoked the search for fuels that could be used in higher-compression engines.