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N-9 #
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Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Chantilly, Virginia |
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Through the benefit of wind tunnel tests at MIT by Naval Constructor J.C. Hunsaker, the N-9 evolved as a single float seaplane for use as a naval trainer. A contract was let with Curtiss in August 1916 for 30 of the aircraft with the first being delivered in October. It had a ten foot longer wing span and was three and a half feet longer than the N or JN models. In the primary training role, the 100 hp OXX-6 was quite satisfactory but for more advanced gunnery and bombing, Curtiss installed the 150 hp Wright-Hispano Model A engine which was referred to as the "Hisso". This increased the maximum speed to 80 mph at sea level.
Five hundred and sixty N-9s were built for the Navy during World War I, some by Curtiss but most by the Burgess Company of Marblehead, Mass. In 1916-17 several armored cruisers, fitted with catapults used the N-9 in efforts to develop techniques of operating aircraft from ships. When the first compressed air turntable was built at the Naval Aircraft Factory it was first demonstrated with an N-9. Some were still in service as late as 1926. |
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