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Страна: США

Год: 1918

Long-range patrol flying-boat

P.Bowers Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947 (Putnam)

The NC Boats (Model 12)

   The famous NC flying-boats were the result of a design co-operation between the US Navy and Curtiss, hence the designation NC. As the JN designation became Jenny, so the NC became Nancy but while that term was used in contemporary times, it soon died; the fame of the NC series rests on the accomplishments of a single example, the NC-4, the first aeroplane to fly across the Atlantic ocean.
   The concept of the NC boats originated with Rear Admiral David W. Taylor, Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair, who was concerned about aeroplanes en route to France by ship being lost to German submarines. He thought that aeroplanes should be developed that could fly across and be ready for duty on arrival. Navy engineers led by Commanders G. Conrad Westervelt and Jerome Hunsaker began design studies in September 1917.
   As the only experienced builder of large flying-boats in America, Glenn Curtiss was called to Washington for consultation. He returned to Buffalo and was back in a few days with two versions of a short-hull flying-boat with a wingspan of 140 ft (42,67 m). One had five of the Navy's new 360 hp Liberty engines and the other had three. The short hull was primarily a weight-saving device; Curtiss had previous experience with the type on the earliest flying-boats and the BT of 1916. Curtiss's original designation for the design was TH-1, for Taylor-Hunsaker.
   Taylor's group chose the three-engined design and Commander Holden C. Richardson was called in to do the detail design of the hull. Curtiss was to design the wings, empennage, and other details, finally receiving a contract for this work on 24 November. In December, it was decided to give Curtiss a contract to build four of the new flying-boats. Later, the new Naval Aircraft Factory was ordered to build six more.
   No official designation for the new type existed at the time. Suggestions to call it DWT for Admiral Taylor were vetoed and Curtiss's TH-1 was not adopted because the Navy felt that it was primarily a Navy, not a Curtiss, project. The final NC for Navy-Curtiss was a logical compromise.
   Virtual flying ships, the NCs followed the Naval custom of numbering the individual ships within a class. The assigned designations of NC-1 to NC-4 were not separate model numbers; they were individual aeroplane numbers for NC-class aeroplanes. Like series-built ships, the NCs showed individual differences as a result of construction experience and different approaches to design problems, particularly powerplant arrangement. Two official variations of the NC designation appeared in 1919: NC-T - a configuration using four tandem-pair engines in two nacelles, applied only to NC-2, and NC-TA - four-engined aircraft configured in the modified form of NC-1 and equipped for the transatlantic flight of May 1919.
   Under the revised Naval designation system of 1923, all the NCs became P2N-1 for the Navy's second palrol design, at least on paper. The original designations remained in common use.
   With the Buffalo plant expanding for large-scale production, Curtiss's design work on the experimental NCs got low priority from the new management. Not until the project was transferred to the new Experimental plant at Garden City did work really get under way although construction of NC-1 had started in Buffalo in December 1917.
   The existing Curtiss Garden City plant was too small for such an enormous construction job, so the Navy built a greatly enlarged shop area there. It also built a new hangar capable of housing two assembled NCs at the Rockaway Naval Air Station, 20 miles (32 km) from Garden City. The NCs were first assembled at the factory, then dismantled, trucked to Rockaway, and reassembled for flight there.
   Curtiss also had a manpower problem. All available skilled help was already employed in other aircraft plants in the New York area, so most of the actual construction of the NCs was farmed out to established boat builders and woodworking firms in the New England area. After the first four NCs were completed, Peter Jannsen, the Garden City shop manager, was hired by the Navy to supervise construction of the final six at the Naval Aircraft Factory. Average cost of the NC boats, less GFE, was $125,000.
   The war ended soon after completion of NC-1 and the requirement for transatlantic delivery vanished. For a while, it looked as if the remaining NCs would be cancelled. However, with other nations preparing to go after the renewed Daily Mail prize for the first transatlantic flight, the Navy decided to be the first to make the crossing - not for the money but for the prestige of the US Navy. The project received official status on 4 February, 1919.
   Briefly, the plan was to use NC-1, 3 and 4, collectively known as Seaplane Division One, departing from Rockaway for Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, 950 miles (1,529 km) away, in May. From there, there was a nonstop flight of 1,381 miles (2.222 km) to Horta in the Azores, a short 169-mile (272 km) hop to Ponta Delgada, then a 925-mile (1,489 km) leg to Lisbon and a 500-mile (805 km) leg lo Plymouth.
   Commissioning ceremonies were held at Rockaway on 3 May, and the three departed for Trepassy on 8 May, with departure for the Azores scheduled for 16 May. A string of Navy ships was stationed along the route to provide radio communication and necessary emergency assistance. Due mainly to the problems of navigating in fog, only NC-4 completed the record 3,925-mile (6,317 km) trip, reaching Plymouth on 31 May.

NC-1 - The NC-1 (serial A2291) was a tractor three-engined aircraft powered with the 360 hp low-compression Navy version of the Liberty. Each engine was in an individual nacelle and all were at the same level and in line with each other longitudinally. Pilot and co-pilot were in a cockpit in the centre engine nacelle and a gunner was located in a nest on the upper wing above the centre engine. Other gun stations were in the extreme bow and near the rear of the hull.
   The NC-1 had the only Curtiss-built hull; the wings, with the now-traditional RAF 6 aerofoil, were built by the Locke Body Company of New York City, a builder of car bodies. The first flight, with Commander Richardson as pilot, was made on 4 October, 1918. On 27 November, NC-1 carried a record load of 50 passengers and crew plus one stowaway.
   Test results showed that the three-engined NC-1 could not lift enough fuel for the transatlantic flight, so an extra engine was added. This was accomplished by raising the centre nacelle and modifying it to accommodate two engines in tandem. To prevent tail-heaviness from the new rear engine, the centre forward engine was moved ahead of the unchanged side engines. The pilots were relocated from the nacelle to a conventional side-by-side cockpit in the forward hull.
   On the transatlantic flight, NC-1 alighted at sea short of the Azores; the crew was taken aboard a ship and the flying-boat was sunk.

NC-2 - As launched on 3 February, 1919, NC-2 (serial A2292) was a three-engined aircraft differing from NC-1 in having the centre engine installed as a pusher. The pilots rode in the front of the centre nacelle. With no centre tractor propeller between them, the side nacelles were closer together than on NC-1. This fact complicated the subsequent conversion to four engines - the revised NC-1 arrangement could not be used without the major structural work of moving the side nacelles further outboard. The problem was solved by arranging the engines in two tandem pairs in the side nacelles, hence the NC-T designation. The pilots remained briefly in the now engineless centre nacelle, which was later removed in favour of a conventional cockpit in the hull. The hull was built by Lawley & Sons, boat builders of Boston. The NC-2 was wrecked when blown ashore in a storm and parts were used on the other three NCs.

NC-3 - The construction of NC-3 (serial A2293) was far enough behind NC-1 to benefit from its test and modification programme. As launched and flown on 23 April, it duplicated the four-engined NC-1 pattern and was the first NC-TA built as such. Like NC-2, NC-3's hull was built by Lawley. NC-3 was chosen by Commander John H. Towers, commander of the flight, to be his flagship. It made a precautionary alighting at sea some 200 miles (322 km) short of the Azores. Unable to take-off again, it taxied to Horta.

NC-4 - The NC-4 (serial A2294), with hull built by the Herrescholl Company of Bristol, Rhode Island, duplicated NC-3 and was launched on 30 April. Under the command of Lt-Commander A. C. Read, it departed with the others for Trepassy, but was forced down by engine trouble and taxied 60 miles (96 km) to the Naval Air Station at Chatham, Mass. Following an engine change, it arrived at Trepassy on 10 May.
   After an uneventful flight of 19 hr 23 min, NC-4 reached Horta on 17 May. It then made the short flight to Ponta Delgada to wait for word from the missing NC-1 and NC-3. It arrived in Lisbon on 27 May and reached Plymouth on 31 May after an emergency stop at Mondego in Portugal, just north of Lisbon and an overnight stop at Ferrol in Spain, due to the delay.
   The hull of NC-4 was put on display in the Smithsonian Institution. In 1969 the entire machine was rebuilt for outdoor display in Washington on the 50th anniversary of the flight. It is now to be seen fully assembled in the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola, Florida.

NC Flying-boats
   Long-range flying-boat. Five crew. Three 400 hp Liberty 12A (NC-2), four 400 hp Liberty 12A (NC-4).
   Span 126 ft (38,4 m); length 68 ft 3 in (20,8 m) NC-2, 68 ft 2 in (20,77 m) NC-4; height 24 ft 5 in (7,44 m); wing area 2,441 sq ft (226,76 sq m).
   Empty weight 14,100 lb (6,396 kg) NC-2, 16,000 lb (7,257 kg) NC-4; gross weight 23,000 lb (10,433 kg) NC-2, 28,000 lb (12,700 kg) NC-4.
   Maximum speed 85 mph (136,79 km/h); climb in 10 min - 2,200 ft (670 m) NC-2, 2,000 ft (610 m) NC-4; service ceiling 4,500 ft (1,372 m) NC-2, 2,500 ft (762 m) NC-4; endurance 14,8 hr at cruising speed.

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Описание:

  • P.Bowers Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947 (Putnam)
  • G.Swanborough, P.Bowers United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911 (Putnam)
  • Jane's All The World Aircraft 1919
  • Журнал Flight