Curtiss Falcon

what is it?

The Curtiss Falcon was a family of military biplane aircraft built by the American aircraft manufacturer Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company during the 1920s. Most saw service as part of the United States Army Air Corps as observation aircraft with the designations O-1 and O-11, or as the attack aircraft designated the A-3 Falcon. U.S. Navy variants were used initially as fighter-bombers with the designation F8C Falcon, then as the first U.S. Marine Corps dive bombers with the name Helldiver.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · biplane · 11.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 224 km/htop speed
• size 2,030 kgmax take-off weight
• built 488made in total

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

• 🏎️Top speed is 1.7× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 11.6 m: about 3 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

—

introduced

1925

retired

1937

status

retired

number built

488

role

observation, attack

makers

Curtiss-Wright, Curtiss

engines

1× Curtiss D-12E (V-1150-5)

crew

2

length

8.4 m

wingspan

11.6 m

height

3.1 m

max take-off weight

2,030 kg

top speed

224 km/h

cruise speed

179 km/h

range

—

ceiling

4,389 m

wings

biplane

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.