Lighter than air “ships” seems today a 19th Century heritage. However, airships played an important part of naval warfare both in WW1 and WW2. In between airships, the largest air-going vessels ever built like those for the USN (aircraft carrier at that), USS Akron and Macon, disappeared in accidents, but one category, until then used … Read more
US Navy Fighter, 27 USN, +3 protos +129 exports The Curtiss F11C Goshawk is now a somewhat forgotten USN naval biplane fighter of limited production (28 for the BFC-2). Declined into the C2 with landing undercarriage and a sole prototype with Grumman’s retractable undercarriage (C3), it only saw service for a time on USS Saratoga … Read more
US Navy Fighter (1928-34), 187 built (and 366 P-12) Development For the Navy, the Boeing Type 99 The based model for the Navy aicraft was the Boeing P-12, a U.S. military pursuit aircraft used primarily by the USAAC (United States Army Air Corps). It first Flew on 25 June 1928 and was only introducted on … Read more
US Navy Carrier Fighter (1933), 37 built The Boeing FB.5 was a biplane fighter used by the United States Navy in the early 1920s, part of Boeing’s FB series evolving from the PW-9 Army fighter. It was essentially navalized version of the PW-9 adapted to meet Navy’s requirements for a carrier-based aircraft. It featured a … Read more
US Navy Torpedo Bomber (1926-32), 124 built. The Martin T3M is a 1926 carrier-borne torpedo bomber, introduced a year before the Lexington class were operational and also equipped with floats. It was flown in February 1926 and acceptated for production and service later that year. Service time averaged 4-5 years, as the T3M was replaced … Read more
Vought VE-7 (1917) Naval Fighter – 128 built The Vought VE-7 “Bluebird” was an early biplane of the United States. First flying in 1917, it was designed as a two-seat trainer for the United States Army, then adopted by the United States Navy as its first fighter aircraft. In 1922, a VE-7 became the first … Read more
Catapult-launch observation floarplane, Curtiss 97B USN Carrier Fighter (1944-1949, 577 built) The USN last onboard floatplane The Curtiss SC Seahawk was a scout seaplane designed by Curtiss (Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co.) for the United States Navy during World War II. It was scheduled to replace the existing Curtiss SO3C Seamew and Vought OS2U Kingfisher … Read more
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver (1942) US Navy Dive Bomber (1943-45), 7,140 built The Curtiss SB2C and its “bad rep” A bit like Brewster products, the Buffalo and Buccaneer, the 1942 Helldiver suffered from a poor reputation. The Curtiss A-25 Shrike dive bomber was developed as a carrier-based bomber, intended for supplementing, and replacing the Douglas SBD … Read more
Grumman F2F (1933) Single seat biplane naval fighter Design Development The outstanding performance of the Grumman FF-1 “Fifi” two-seat multirole aircraft, significantly faster than single-seat fighters of its day, prompted the Grumman design team to consider the potential of a single-seat version of the FF in 1932 already. In June Grumman submitted to the US … Read more
Curtiss SBC Helldiver (1933) USN Carrier Dive Bomber 1935-1940 (257 built) Curtiss biplane dive bomber The Curtiss SBC Helldiver was a two-seat scout/dive bomber from Curtiss-Wright and the last military biplane of the USN, introduced from 1937. Although a biplane, it was a modern and very strudy, reliable model seeing service on USS Saratoga, Yorktown … Read more
