what is it?
The Boeing Model 15 is a United States single-seat open-cockpit biplane fighter aircraft of the 1920s, manufactured by the Boeing company. The Model 15 saw service with the United States Army Air Service (as the PW-9 series) and with the United States Navy as a carrier-based fighter (as the FB series).
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · tailwheel (taildragger) · 9.8 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 103 years ago, in 1923.
- Top speed is 2.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 9.8 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1923-06-02
- introduced
- 1923
- number built
- 158
- role
- pursuit fighter (pw-9), carrier fighter (fb series)
- makers
- Boeing
- engines
- 1× Curtiss D-12
- length
- 7.1 m
- wingspan
- 9.8 m
- height
- 2.5 m
- max take-off weight
- 1,415 kg
- top speed
- 256 km/h
- cruise speed
- 228 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 5,768 m
- landing gear
- conventional landing gear
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q890199, Wikipedia: Boeing Model 15 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.