Curtiss R3C

The Curtiss R3C is an American racing aircraft built in landplane and floatplane form. It was a single-seat biplane built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.

The R3C-1 was the landplane version and Cyrus Bettis won the Pulitzer Trophy Race in one on 12 October 1925 with a speed of .

The R3C-2 was a twin float seaplane built for the Schneider Trophy race. In 1925, from 23 to 26 October, it took place at Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore, Maryland. With , pilot Jimmy Doolittle won the trophy with a Curtiss R3C-2. The other two R3C-2s, piloted by George Cuddihy and Ralph Oftsie, did not reach the finish line. The next day, with the same plane on a straight course, Doolittle reached , a new world record. For the next Schneider Trophy, which took place on 13 November 1926, the R3C-2's engine was further improved, and pilot Christian Franck Schilt took second place with .

Operators

File:Curtiss R3C-2 A6979 3 USAFM 22.04.74 edited-3.jpg

The surviving R3C-2 is displayed at the NASM near Washington

• United States Navy - two examples
• United States Army Air Service - one example

Survivors

The R3C-2 that Jimmy Doolitle piloted to victory in the 1925 Schneider Trophy race is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre, at Washington Dulles Airport, Virginia. It still wears its '3' 1925 racing number.

Specifications (R3C-2)

File:Curtiss R3C-2 at Naval Aircraft Factory 1926.JPG

The R3C-3 at the Naval Aircraft Factory in 1926.

File:Curtiss R3C2 at NASM.png

Curtiss R3C-2 at the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

In popular culture

• A Curtiss R3C appears in Hayao Miyazaki's 1992 animated movie Porco Rosso featuring a romanticized interwar aviation. The Curtiss R3C is flown by a pilot himself named Curtis. The dialogues also reference the 1925 Schneider Trophy.

See also

• Curtiss CR

References

• Angelucci, Enzo. World Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft. London:Willow Books, 1984. Template:ISBN.
• Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London:Putnam, 1979. Template:ISBN.
• Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter M. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London:Putnam, 1976. Template:ISBN.
• The Golden Age of Aviation – Curtiss R3C-2
• Pulitzer Trophy web site
• Schneider Trophy 1925 web site (french)
• German edition “Flugzeuge”, Enzo Angelucci, 1974 Template:ISBN
• results of the Schneider Trophy from the Society of Air Racing Historians

External links

• The Curtiss R3C Page
• computer-designed picture (and photo) at www.hydroretro.net
• photo of the R3C-2 in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum