Curtiss Wanamaker (Model T / Model 3)

Curtiss Wanamaker's Story (Type T/Type 3)

The Curtis Aircraft and Motor Company was founded by Glenn H. Curtis in January 1916, but Mr. Curtis began building aircraft as early as 1909 using the experimental "No. 1" single-engine biplane. When the war swept Europe in 1914, it sparked various developments in aviation, and Curtis began working on several types of aircraft, including the "Wanamaker", a four-engine, three-deck airship originally used as a transatlantic Passenger - tug, then refitted to meet the requirements of the military patrol bomber of the First World War (1914-1918).

The plane was the first four-engine aircraft built in the United States, and was the largest seaplane (in the air (and on the water)) in the world at the time.

Wanamaker takes its name from its financier Rodman Wanamaker, who approached Curtiss as early as 1915 to help design, develop and build an aircraft capable of flying the British Daily Mail (worth 10,000 Sterling!). This partnership effort and subsequent work eventually helped produce the "Wanamaker Triplane" - also known internally as the Curtis "Model T".

The plane was a behemoth by 1916 standards, several stories tall and 31.3 feet tall. It has a barrel length of almost 59 feet and a wingspan of 134 feet (top span). As a triplane, the aircraft comes with three distinct wing components, an upper span, a midspan, and a lower span.

These are supported by parallel struts and cables. The upper wing element has the largest span (134 feet), while the middle wing element is slightly shorter at 100 feet and the lower wing element spans 78.2 feet.

The fuselage sits below the lowest span and is given a boat-like hull for water landing and take-off. Above the center span, the four engines are placed side by side in a pattern. The fin consists of a vertical fin and a pair of horizontal planes.

The entire crew consisted of six people, and they were completely enclosed within the fuselagethis was the age of the open-air cockpit. Curb weight is 15,645 lbs and maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 22,000 lbs. Electric auxiliary controls were introduced to help control larger machines.

The design was eventually revealed to be powered by 4 Curtiss V-4 engines of 250 horsepower each, all arranged in a "puller" configuration. All told, the plane can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour, has a range of 675 miles, and can stay in the air for up to seven hours.

The climb speed is a respectable 400 feet per minute.

In July 1916, the Curtiss factory in Buffalo, New York produced the first (and ultimately only) Model T. It has long been of interest to Britain, already involved in World War I (1914-1918), when maritime patrol bombers and their Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) attempted to protect 20 Curtis airships. Unfortunately for Curtis, however, when British interest was at its peak, the necessary engine was not yet available.

To facilitate sales, the aircraft was disassembled and shipped to the UK, where it was reassembled and installed 4 French-made Renault 12F V-12 water-cooled piston engines producing 240 hp, each driving a four-bladed wooden propeller . In 1916 the aircraft was stationed in this form at RNAS Felixstowe. Soon after, the engine configuration was changed to the 4 x Rolls-Royce Eagle model, which was tested on its maiden flight that year.

However, the plane crashed, landed and was written off as a total loss, which caused RNAS to cancel the contracts of the remaining 19 Wanamakers, and their story more or less ended there.

The British then developed the idea behind the Curtis design into the Felixstowe "Fury" (detailed elsewhere on this page), another massive airship design of the period, designed to satisfy the British Some changes were made as requested by the military (again in the role of a maritime patrol bomber). There is also only one complete example of this aircraft, with a very short lifespan, it first flew in November 1918 and was retired in August 1919.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes