what is it?
The Thomas Brothers T-2 was an American-built biplane which served with the Royal Navy. Built by Thomas-Morse Aircraft in Bath, New York, in 1914, it was the creation of Benjamin D. Thomas (later the company's chief designer), based on his Curtiss JN-4 (which it resembles), and used the 90 hp (67 kW) Austro-Daimler. Twenty-four aircraft, in two batches, were provided to the Royal Naval Air Service, the Austro-Daimler being replaced by a similar-horsepower Curtiss OX-5 An additional fifteen, differing in being fitted with floats in place of wheels, a 100 hp (75 kW) Thomas among other engines in place of the OX-5, and three-bay wings spanning 44 ft (13.41 m), were sold to the United States Navy as the SH-4.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 11 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 112 years ago, in 1914.
- Wingspan of 11 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
- 1914
- introduced
- 1915
- number built
- 25
- role
- military biplane
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States of America
- makers
- Thomas Brothers Aeroplane Company
- engines
- 1× Curtiss OX-5
- crew
- 2
- length
- 7.9 m
- wingspan
- 11 m
- max take-off weight
- 894 kg
- top speed
- 134 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7787944, Wikipedia: Thomas Brothers T-2 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.