I would be interested. I suppose it would be going to far to request the airship too? Would probably have to be an outdoor display.:wink2:^&grin^&cool -- Al
The Hawk III supplied to the Chinese differed from the US Navy BF2C in that the Hawk III had a wooden framed construction for the wing, whereas the US Navy version had a metal frame wing which caused the vibration problems. China purchased 102 Hawk III's between March 1936 and June 1938. The Hawk III did well in combat against the Japanese biplane fighters in use early in the conflict but were outclassed once the monoplane Mitsubishi A5M entered combat. The Hawks were then transferred to training units after being replaced by Polikarpov I-15's, I-152's, and I-153's. Hawk III's had a sea-level top speed of 202 mph, which increased to 240 mph at 11,500 feet. It was armed with 2 .30 caliber Mgs. -- AlHere’s some nice artwork of Al’s Chinese Hawk:
This was a fine aircraft for its day. However, the Navy’s version, the BF2C, was a fiasco. The wings of both aircraft appeared identical. However, the materials involved in their construction was different. After the Navy version was delivered, pilots noticed that it vibrated violently in a dive. Not a desirable quality in a plane with “B” in its designator code. The Navy tried several modifications to eliminate the problem, all of which proved unsuccessful. As you digest these comments, bear in mind that this all went down during the Great Depression, and that the Navy didn’t have money to waste on a run of defective aircraft!
-Moe