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{{Infobox aircraft
 |name=Model C
 |image=Wright CH.jpg
 |caption=Wright Model C-H
 |type=Scout
 |manufacturer=[[Wright Company]]
 |designer= Orville Wright
 |first_flight=[[1912 in aviation|1912]]
 |introduction= May 18, 1912
 |retired= February 24, 1914
 |status=
 |primary_user= [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps]]
 |more_users=
 |produced=
 |number_built=8
 |variants=
}}
The '''Wright Model C''' "Speed Scout" was an early military aircraft produced in the [[United States]] and which first flew in 1912. It was a development of the [[Wright Model B|Model B]] but was specifically designed to offer the [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps]] a long-range scouting aircraft.

It featured a more powerful [[Piston engine|engine]] over the Wright B, and an endurance of around four hours. Still a two-seater, it added a complete second set of controls, meaning that either crew member could operate the aircraft. On some, the lever controls were replaced with two wheels mounted on a single yoke.<ref name="ohnine">"United States Military Aircraft Since 1909" by F. G. Swanborough & Peter M. Bowers (Putnam New York, {{ISBN|0-85177-816-X}}) 1964, 596 pp.</ref> Aerodynamically, the small finlets ("blinkers" in the Wrights' terminology) that had been used on the Model B's [[Landing gear|undercarriage]] were replaced by two vertical vanes attached to the forward end of the skids.

The aircraft had a short service life, from 1912 to 1914, because of a series of fatal crashes that destroyed six of the eight aircraft manufactured for the Army.

==Development==
The increase in power was to meet Army specifications that the aircraft have a rate of climb of 200 feet per minute (1&nbsp;m/s), a fuel capacity for a four-hour flight, and carry a weight of 450 pounds including crew. Its simplified twin-lever control system was confusing to operate and proved difficult for novice pilots to master, while the plane itself was tail heavy and unstable.

Seven Model Cs were used by the Aeronautical Division: S.C. 10-14, S.C. 16, and S.C. 5, a [[Wright Model B|Burgess Model F]] rebuilt to Wright C standards. Five new Wright Scouts were delivered to the Aviation School at [[College Park, Maryland]]; one to the provisional [[1st Reconnaissance Squadron|1st Aero Squadron]] at [[Texas City, Texas]]; and the last shipped to the Philippines. An eighth Aircraft (S.C. 18), a Burgess Model J delivered in January 1913, was a Wright C built under license by the [[Burgess Company|Burgess Company and Curtis]].

The aircraft were delivered between May 1912 and January 1913 and were subject to approval of ten flight tests by the Army before acceptance. The first delivered, to have been S.C. 10, crashed during its climbing test on June 11, 1912, killing Wright Company pilot [[Arthur L. Welsh]] and Lt. [[Leighton Wilson Hazelhurst, Jr.|Leighton W. Hazlehurst]], and was replaced in October by another Wright C, itself destroyed in the last fatal crash on February 8, 1914. The crash involving Welsh was found by the Army's board of inquiry to have been pilot error by Welsh, who had intentionally placed the aircraft 45 degrees nose down prior to the test to build momentum. Deliveries of the plane continued, although the statement of one eyewitness led to speculation that the elevator had not responded to inputs to pull out of the dive.

==Operational history==
The Model Cs quickly earned an unenviable reputation when six of the eight passing their acceptance flights crashed between July 8, 1913, and February 9, 1914, with all but one of the crashes involving fatalities. The fifth crash on November 24, 1913, killed the Army's chief instructor and a new pilot. As a result, the Wright Company factory manager, [[Grover Loening]], concluded that the Wright C was flawed by a design defect. [[Orville Wright]] disagreed, maintaining that pilot error was to blame, specifically unfamiliarity with the more powerful engine. He theorized that pilots stalled the aircraft by applying full power that in level flight made [[angle of attack]] critical. He proposed that full power be used only to climb and invented an angle-of-incidence indicator sensitive enough to warn a pilot that his climb or dive was too steep. He also completed work on an [[autopilot]] which he patented in October 1913, and successfully demonstrated in December, but a [[autopilot#First autopilots|gyroscope-operated autopilot]] patented by [[Lawrence Sperry]] proved more immediately practical and became standard.

The final crash resulted in grounding of the two surviving Model C's on February 16, 1914. An Army board of investigation concluded that the elevator was "too weak" and that the Model C itself was "dynamically unsuited for flying," despite testimony from Wright's chief instructor that poor maintenance played a key role in the fatalities. The Aeronautical Division hired Loening as an engineer to review the airworthiness of its airplanes, and use of S.C.s No. 16 (which had a less powerful Model B engine) and No. 5 (a [[Wright Model B|Burgess F]] rebuilt to Model C configuration), permanently discontinued on February 24, 1914, when on Loening's recommendation the Army de-commissioned all seven of its remaining [[pusher configuration|"pusher"]] airplanes as a matter of policy.

==Variants==
;Model C
:Two-seat scouting biplane, powered by a 35-hp (26-kW) Wright piston engine. Six built for the Aeronautical Division, and one converted from a Burgess Model F (a license-built [[Wright Model B]]). 
;Model C-H
:Two-seat scouting floatplane, powered by a 60-hp (45-kW) Wright piston engine. Three built for the US Navy.
;Model J
:One built under license by the Burgess Company and Curtis, with curved wings and 40hp Sturtevant D-4 engine.
;Model D Scout
:A single-seat experimental variant built for and tested by the Aeronautical Division, two built (S.C. 19 and 20).

==Operators==
;{{USA}}
*[[United States Army]]
*[[United States Navy]]

==Specifications==
{{Aircraft specs
|prime units? = imp

|crew= Two
|length m=9.07
|length ft=29
|length in=9
|span m=11.59
|span ft=38
|span in=0
|height m=2.24
|height ft=7
|height in=4
|wing area sqm=40.9
|wing area sqft=440
|empty weight kg=363
|empty weight lb=800
|gross weight kg=585
|gross weight lb=1,290

|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=Wright 6-cylinder water-cooled inline
|eng1 kw=56
|eng1 hp=75

|max speed kmh=100
|max speed mph=60
|range km= 386
|range miles= 240
|endurance=4 hours|climb rate ms=1
|climb rate ftmin=200

}}
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==References==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;Bibliography
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120328033629/http://wrightstories.com/wright-model-c-end-of-the-line/ "Wright Model C: End of the Line"]}}, Dr. Richard Stimson, The Wright Stories
* {{cite book |last= Taylor |first= Michael J. H. |title=Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation |year=1989 |publisher=Studio Editions |location=London |pages=898 }}
* {{cite book |title=World Aircraft Information Files |publisher=Bright Star Publishing|location=London |pages=File 911 Sheet 03 }}
* {{cite book |last= Hallion |first= Richard P. |author-link=Richard P. Hallion |title=The Wright Kites, Gliders, and Airplanes: A Reference Guide |year=2003 |pages=38}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Wright Model C}}

{{Wright aircraft}}

[[Category:1910s United States military reconnaissance aircraft]]
[[Category:Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft]]
[[Category:Wright aircraft|Model C]]
[[Category:Aircraft first flown in 1912]]