History of AirplanesFrom the Wright Brothers to Charles Lindbergh to Chuck Yeager to Neil Armstrong, Americans were the leaders in aviation.
The early kite-like pusher biplanes of the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss astounded the world, especially when Curtiss won the Rheims international air race in 1909. The Wrights let their pre-eminence slip away and by 1915, the Curtiss Aeroplane Company was the largest in the world. During World War One, under wartime pressure, the British, French, and Germans made more rapid advances than the Americans.
But the Twenties were another story, and U.S. military fliers set the pace in high-speed flying, and of course, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris, an event quite unrivalled in modern history. In the late Twenties and through the Thirties, air racing became quite the rage in the United States, and odd-looking “all-engine” airplanes like the infamous GeeBee set new records. Other American aviators like Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart established new frontiers in aviation.
Aircraft technology proceeded apace: Pratt & Whitney’s double Wasp radial engines were the powerhouses of the day. RCA produced the finest electronic equipment.
In World War Two, the American air forces relied on massive numbers of high-quality airplanes - fighters, bombers, trainers, as well as pilots, air crews, supplies, and spare parts - to rule the skies.
The American Navy dirigible or blimp C-5 left Montauk Point on May 14, 1919 in an attempt to cross the Atlantic by way of Halifax, where it arrived at 10 o’clock on the morning of May 16th, after being in the air almost 26 hours. A perfect landing was made at the Pleasantville base [...]
The year 1919 was memorable in the history of aviation for the first successful flight across the Atlantic, achieved by aviators of the United States Navy using NC flying boats, jointly developed by the United States Navy and the Curtiss Engineering Corporation, the N in the designation standing for navy and the C for Curtiss. [...]
Whether equipped with floats as a seaplane or with a landing gear, the Standard twin- motored seaplane is of a size that is commonly termed a battle plane. It has a total weight of 2 1/2 tons fully loaded and, at an economical speed, has a cruising range of 450 miles. The fuel tanks, carried [...]
The chief distinguishing feature of the Gallaudet seaplane is the employment a four-blade propeller acting as a pusher in connection with a fuselage design similar in most respects to the tractor type.
Top Speed: 92 m.p.h.
Engine: two Duesenberg inlines
Wingspan: 47 feet
Weight: 4,600 pounds
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,” by Charles Hayward, 1919
The manner in [...]
Curtiss “Cruiser”.
Top Speed: n.a.
Engine: two Curtiss eight-cylinders
Wingspan: 75.8 feet
Weight: over 4,000 pounds
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,” by Charles Hayward, 1919
Designed for sporting rather than for military use, the design and equipment of the Curtiss “cruiser”, afford an indication of the trend that development undoubtedly will take once the war is over. It [...]
Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of 1912 was the Curtiss flying-boat. Glenn Curtiss, who won the James Gordon Bennett race in 1909, had succeeded in rising from the water in 1913 with a similar biplane fitted with a central pontoon float instead of a wheeled under-carriage. This he made into a genuine flying-boat, consisting [...]
In its wing plan, the Burgess scout seaplane, resembles a sesquiplane, such as the Nieuport, in that the lower wings are so much shorter than the upper that it is almost a monoplane with auxiliary wings. It is also distinguished by the elimination of interplane struts, their place being taken by two flat [...]
The Wright-Martin Type V, was a reconnaissance type with tractor propeller, and the observer’s cockpit being placed well forward of the entering wedge of the lower wings.
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,” by Charles Hayward, 1919
Planes
The span of the machine is 39 feet 8 ½ inches, both planes being the same size. The [...]
The Standard J-R was a development of the preliminary training tractor machine built by the same makers. It was equipped with a 175-h.p. six-cylinder Hall-Scott motor, is capable of climbing 5000 feet in 10 minutes, and had a maximum flying speed of 95 m.p.h. and a landing speed of 48 m.p.h.
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,” by [...]
The most famous and widely used American airplane of the World War One era. In the 1920’s countless ‘barnstormers’ flew Jennies in flight exhibitions all over the United States. The Curtiss tractor was identified by its manufacturers as Model JNB-4 and was been largely used for training purposes during the war.
Specifications from “Practical Aviation,” [...]