Curtiss F11C/BFC Goshawk (1 Viewer)

[ivanmoe]

Am thinking that this would make for a nice subject for a TG model plane:

BTW, there's another Curtiss, the BF2C which was a pretty terrible failure.

Never want to get the two confused!

For you Luftwaffe devotees out there, I should note that Ernst Udet purchased two of these to demonstrate the efficacy of dive-bombing to the German military.

That would make for a nice model, also!


-Moe

 

[lancer]

Would love to see the F11/C in yellow wings livery. Don't know that I could afford one but it would be a real beauty to at least dream about.:wink2:^&cool-- Al

 

[theBaron]

...BTW, there's another Curtiss, the BF2C which was a pretty terrible failure. Never want to get the two confused!...

Well, the BF2C was the last development version of the Goshawk. Curtiss replaced the fixed landing gear of the earlier design with retractable landing gear. And they replaced the upper wing, which was previously built with a wooden frame, with one with a metal frame. The problem that emerged was that the wing frame vibrated terribly, in sync with the motor. It was bad enough that the aircraft felt like it would tear itself apart in flight. That was the failure point; otherwise, it was a decent aircraft.

Curtiss offered to replace the metal wings with the wooden ones, but the Navy was already bringing Grumman's F2F/F3F series into service, and looking ahead to all-metal monoplane designs, so they declined. Curtiss wound up selling the wooden-winged version to foreign buyers, like the Republic of China.

Prost!
Brad

 

[ivanmoe]

A few more pics:





Such a lovely plane.

The color pic in my original post, above, is of a restoration on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.

The fixed-gear Goshawk only served with the air groups of two vessels, Saratoga and Enterprise.

The squadron was successively designated VF-1B, VB-2B, VB-3 (Saratoga) and VF-6 (Enterprise) over the better part of a six-year period from 1933-38.

The tail color varied as follows:

VF-1B - Red
VB-2B - Red
VB-3 - White
VF-6 - Blue

Only 28 of the aircraft were ordered in 1932, a testament to depression-era budget constraints that the Navy experienced for much of the decade.

-Moe

 

[Terp152]

A few more pics:

View attachment 262705

Such a lovely plane.
The color pic in my original post, above, is of a restoration on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
The fixed-gear Goshawk only served with the air groups of two vessels, Saratoga and Enterprise.
The squadron was successively designated VF-1B, VB-2B, VB-3 (Saratoga) and VF-6 (Enterprise) over the better part of a six-year period from 1933-38.-Moe

The Naval Air Museum is a wonderful collection of acft and is a branch of the Smithsonian Museum. I visited several times many yrs ago before an expansion. You can spend days viewing acft from all eras including the NC-4, first acft to fly trans-Atlantic in 1919. A must see location if ever in Pensacola. Chris

 

[tmanthegreat]

The Curtiss F11 would definitely be an interesting aircraft for Thomas Gunn to make. They have produced an impressive range of aircraft models with many rare and unique planes replicated, so they seem to me to be the company that would most likely make a model of the F11.

That said, I’m actually surprised John Jenkins Designs hasn’t pursued a number of other aircraft (like the F11 for example) as part of his Interwar Aviation line. He did a great job with the F4B and P-26.