The paper analyses the history of assimilation of aircraft engines manufacturing by the Moscow plant of a French company, Gnome et Rhône, from its inception in 1912 till February 1917 when the plant’s operations were shut down. The lack of growth in engine production during World War I may be seen as an indicator of serious problems encountered in the course of assimilation of production of the new types of engines. These problems were found to be associated with the impossibility of obtaining special cast iron of appropriate quality for manufacturing engine pistons. The paper reviews the causes of defects that necessitated a refusal to buy from the Russian suppliers. The conclusion is made that these defects predictably originated from the limited possibilities of adopting metallurgical technologies from abroad.