Wright F3W Apache / XF3W Apache

After the U.S. Navy declared its preference for radial engines, Wright developed the P-1 Simoon. To demonstrate the engine, the F3W was designed to carry it. The new air-cooled, supercharged 1,176.036-cubic-inch-displacement (19.272 liters) Wright Aeronautical Division R-1200 Simoon 9-cylinder radial engine, was rated at 350 horsepower at 1,900 r.p.m. The R-1200 weighed 640 pounds (290 kilograms). The F3W was a single-seat biplane, with a steel tubing fuselage and wood wings, covered by fabric. Designed to be a carrier-based fighter and powered by the Simoon engine, its performance was poor. One was built, A7223, and tested XF3W-1. After the Navy took delivery of the aircraft, they installed a rival company’s engine, the number two Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial Wasp A engine. The aircraft was redesignated XF3W, and flew with the new engine for the first time on 5 May 1926. The XF3W-1 was the first airplane to fly with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine.
The Navy used the XF3W as a test bed for the Pratt & Whitney engine until 1930, during which time the aircraft set a number of records.

On 6 September 1926, the XF3W set the world altitude record for seaplanes of 38,500 ft (11,700 m). On 8 May 1929: Lieutenant Apollo Soucek, United States Navy, set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Altitude when he flew the prototype Wright Aeronautical Division XF3W-1 Apache, Bu. No. A7223, to 11,930 meters (39,140 feet) over NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C. The record was certified by the National Aeronautic Association. Lieutenant Soucek was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this achievement.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) used the XF3W-1 for engine and cowling tests at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (LMAL), Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia. Which engine was installed at the time of Lieutenant Soucek’s record flight is uncertain.

Wright XF3W-1 Apache, Bu. No. A7223, at NACA Langley.

The XF3W-1’s engine was supercharged by a NACA Model 2E Roots-type supercharger, built by the Allison Engineering Company. This supercharger, serial number 1, is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum.

Lieutenant Soucek set two other World Records with the XF3W-1 Apache. On 4 June 1929, with the Apache configured as a float plane, he flew it to an altitude of 11,753 meters (38,560 feet). The following year, 4 June 1930, he flew the Apache to 13,157 meters (43,166 feet). The XF3W was fitted with a single centreline float to evaluate the concept of basing floatplanes on battleships.

XF3W-1 with floats
Engine: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340-B, 450 hp (336 kW)
Wingspan: 27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Wing area: 215 sq.ft (19.97 sq.m)
Length: 22 ft 1 in (6.73 m)
Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Empty weight: 1,414 lb (641 kg)
Gross weight: 2,128 lb (965 kg)
Maximum speed: 162 mph (261 km/h)
Service ceiling: 38,560 ft (11,753 m)
Crew: 1

Wright F2W

Wright F2W-1 A-6744

Two Wright F2W-1 were built for the US Navy in 1923 as Pulitzer racers A6743 and A6744. First flying on 27 August 1923, piloted by L H Sanderson, the first crashed on landing during trials and was damaged beyond economical repair.

A6744 was converted to twin floats as F2W-2 in 1924, but also crashed during testing.

Wright F2W-2 A-6743

Engine: Wright T-3 Tornado, 780hp
Wingspan: 22’6″
Length: 21’4″
Speed: 248 mph
Ceiling: 36,300′
Seats: 1

Wright H / HS

Wright HS

The 1914 Wright H featured twin chain-driven propellers and a boat-like fuselage. Five long- and short-nosed versions were produced.

Wright HS

The Wright HS was a 1915 version with shorter-span wings than its Model F predecessor and saw service in the Mexican border campaign.

Wright HS

Engine: Wright, 60hp
Wingspan: 32’0″
Length: 26’6″
Speed: 100 mph
Seats: 2

Wright F / Tin Cow / Burgess-Wright F

Wright F

The 1913 Wright F, or Tin Cow, was the first of the fuselage models, but it still retained wing-warping and two chain-driven propellers.

Although this designation is often seen applied to the Model B built under license by Burgess as their model F, only one was ever produced by the Wrights, delivered in 1914 to US Signal Corps as SC39.

W.Burgess built the Burgess-Wright F in 1911.

1913 Burgess-Wright hydro biplane

The Model F evolved into the 1915 model HS.

Gallery

Engine: Austro-Daimler 6, 90 hp
Wingspan: 42’0″
Length: 29’6″
Speed: 60 mph
Seats: 2

Burgess-Wright F
Span: 39’2″
Length: 29’6″
Seats: 2

Wright AO-3 Mohawk / Iron Horse

A three-place open cockpit biplane built in 1927, the AO-3 Mohawk aka Iron Horse was “Sold” to Wright Flying Co for “… experimental development tests and furtherance of Bureau of Aeronautics Naval Aviation Program.” The sole example, registered NX1087 c/n 5, was involved in an accident on 11 June 1929 and the registration cancelled on 16 August 1929.

Engine: Wright Cyclone, 500hp
Wingspan: 45’0″
Length: 31’0″
Seats: 3
No built: 1

Wright EX / Vin Fiz

Wright EX “Vin Fiz” Cal Rodgers at right, with cousin John Rodgers

The Wright EX was a 1911 long-wing versions of the model R, one of the two built was flown in 1911 by Calbraith P Rodgers, dubbed Vin Fiz Flyer for his soft-drink sponsor, in the first transcontinental flight, from New York to California, with many crashes (including a mid-air collision with an eagle) and repair layovers. At the flight’s end in Los Angeles, a rudder and one strut were said to be the only surviving original parts.

Wright Vin Fiz Trans-Continental Article

EX
Engine: 35hp Wright pusher
Wingspan: 32’0″
Length: 24’5″
Weight: about 903 lbs
Seats: 1

Wright E biplane

Wright E AS10479

The model E was built in 1913 and was the first in the series of Wright Flyers that used a single propeller. The Model E featured 24 inch tires. It was flown with four and six cylinder Wright engines.

The 1913 Wright Model E was similar to EX, except only one 7′ pusher and 2 large 24″ balloon tires.

The aircraft was also the test demonstrator for the first automatic pilot control. The model E was fitted with a prototype autopilot that used a wind driven generator and pendulums to drive the wing warping controls. The design was quickly eclipsed by a gyroscopic autopilot developed by Lawrence Sperry for the competing Curtiss Aeroplane Company.
On 31 December 1913, Orville Wright demonstrated a Model E with an “automatic stabilizer” flying seven circuits around Huffman Prairie field with his hands above his head. The Model E demonstrations earned the Wright Brothers the 1913 Collier Trophy from Aero Club of America.

Albert Elton (1881–1975) purchased the sole Wright Model E for exhibition flights.

Engine: four and six cylinder Wright
Propeller: 2-bladed fixed pitch, 7 ft (2.1 m) diameter
Wingspan: 32 ft (9.8 m)
Length: 27 ft 9 in (8.46 m)
Wing area: 316 sq ft (29.4 sq.m)
Empty weight: 730 lb (331 kg)
Crew: one

Wright Flyer B / CH / C Hydroplane / M-1 / G / Aeroboat

replica

The Model B is the first Wright Engine produced in quantity. The major modifications were the use of a more powerful engine and elevons instead of the wing warping feature. First Wright use of a true rear elevator and last of the open-frame tail boom models. At College Park, Md., in Oct 1911, a Wright “B” was used for the first military trials of a bombsight and bomb-dropping device.

Harry Attwood Wright Model B

After completing the longest cross-country flight in the USA at the time, from Bonton to Washington, a distance of 461 miles, Harry Atwood received the gold medal of the Aero Club of Washington from President William Howard Taft. He flew to and from the White House south lawn to receive the medal in his Wright B.

Harry Atwood uses White House lawn as a runway on 14 July 1911

Frank Coffyn used a B as the first to fly under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges in 1912, which became a popular diversion with other pilots until city authorities finally slammed the lid on their fun.

Capt. Chandler with Lewis gun strapped to the rudder bar of a Wright B in 1912

In Mexico, General Francisco Villa had purchased six Wright B biplanes to equip an aviation component of his Division del Norte, hiring six American pilots to fly them. Some missions were flown before three of the aircraft were destroyed, the remaining three being captured.

Produced, as well, in civil seaplane versions as B-1 with two steel and aluminum-alloy pontoons, and -2 with a single, large float in 1913.The Wright B-1 seaplane version of the model B went in production in 1910.

Wright B-1

The Army planes were AS3 and AS4, and also went to USN in 1911 in hydroplane form as AH-4 (B1), -5 and -6. One of three early U.S. Navy hydroplanes serial B-1 to B-3, renumbered AH-4 to AH-6. B-2 caused the first fatality in U.S. naval aviation.

On June 20, 1913, Ensign W. D. Billingsley, while piloting the B-2 at 1,600 feet over water near Annapolis, Maryland, was thrown from the plane and fell to his death. Admiral John Henry Towers, also unseated in the turbulence, was nearly killed in the same accident as he clung to the plane and fell with it into the water, receiving serious injuries. The Clemson-class destroyer USS Billingsley (DD-293) was named in his honor.

Wright B Stepped floats 1913

The 1912 model C was similar to the Model B, with a 50hp Wright 6-60 pusher engine. Featuring dual controls, seven went to the US Army as the M-1 (AS7, AS10-14, and AS16]. Civil production as the Model C featured 4-cyl motor.

Wright C in the factory

The Grover Loening designed Aeroboat of 1913 looked like a standard Model C with the undercarriage replaced by a small boat. The engine was mounted forward of the cockpit in the aluminum hull. The 60hp Wright engine driving two pusher props. One model G was built in 1913 and one in 1914 for the USN as AH-19.

Wright G

The 1913 Wright Model CH, Wrights’ first hydroplane, was a modified Model C.

Wright CH

Gallery

Engine: Rausenberger 8-Cyl., 74 hp
Wingspan: 41.995 ft / 12.8 m
Length: 30.151 ft / 9.19 m
Height: 9.35 ft / 2.85 m
Max take off weight: 1400.2 lb / 635.0 kg
Max. speed: 39 kts / 72 km/h
Endurance: 2 h
Crew: 2

B, B-1, -2, -3
Engine: Wright 4, 30-35 hp
Wingspan: 39′ 0″
Length: 26’0″ – 31′ 0″
Speed: 45 mph
Crew: 2

C / M-1
Engine: 50hp Wright 6-60
Wingspan: 38’0″
Length: 29’9″
Speed: 45 mph

G / Aeroboat
Engine: 60hp Wright
Props: 2
Span: 38′
Length: 28′
Weight: 1200 – 1300 lb
Seats: 2