The Curtiss D-12, sometimes identified with the military designation Curtiss V-1150, was an

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

of 18.8 liter

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

. It was a water-cooled

V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to: Aircraft * Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter * Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft * Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project * Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...

, producing 443 hp (330 kW) and weighing 693 lb (314 kg). It was designed by Arthur Nutt in 1921 and used in the

Curtiss CR-3 Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades ...

for the 1923

Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded annually (and later, biennially) to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flying ...

race.

Fairey Aviation The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...

of England imported 50 Curtiss-built examples in 1926, renaming them the Fairey Felix. The D-12 was one of the first truly successful

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

cast-

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

engines and was extremely influential in the interwar period. Numerous engines trace their design to the D-12, among them the

Packard 1A-1500 The Packard 1A-1500 was an American 12-cylinder liquid-cooled 60-degree Vee piston aircraft engine designed in 1924.Gunston 1989, p.109. Test flown in the second prototype Douglas XO-2 it proved to be unreliable. Only 29 engines w ...

Rolls-Royce Kestrel The Kestrel or type F is a 21 litre (1,300 in³) 700 horsepower (520 kW) class V-12 aircraft engine from Rolls-Royce, their first cast-block engine and the pattern for most of their future piston-engine designs. Used during the interwar pe ...

and

Junkers Jumo 210 The Jumo 210 was Junkers Motoren's first production inverted V12 gasoline aircraft engine, first produced in the early 1930s. Depending on the version it produced between 610 and 730 PS and can be considered a counterpart of the Rolls-Royce Kest ...

Applications

D-12

Boeing Model 15 The Boeing Model 15 was 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 ...

Curtiss CR The Curtiss CR was a racing aircraft designed for the United States Navy in 1921 by Curtiss. It was a conventional single-seater biplane with a monocoque fuselage and staggered single-bay wings of equal span braced with N-struts. Two essentially ...

Curtiss Falcon 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 ...

Curtiss P-5 The P-1 Hawk (Curtiss Model 34) was a 1920s open-cockpit biplane fighter aircraft of the United States Army Air Corps. An earlier variant of the same aircraft had been designated PW-8 prior to 1925."US Military Aircraft Designations & Serials 19 ...

Curtiss PW-8 The P-1 Hawk (Curtiss Model 34) was a 1920s open-cockpit biplane fighter aircraft of the United States Army Air Corps. An earlier variant of the same aircraft had been designated PW-8 prior to 1925."US Military Aircraft Designations & Serials 19 ...

Curtiss R2C The Curtiss R2C was a racing aircraft designed for the United States Navy in 1923 by Curtiss. It was a single-seater biplane with a monocoque fuselage and staggered single-bay wings of unequal span braced with I-struts. The aircraft's advanced ...

* Fokker D.XII * Macchi M.33 *

Wittman D-12 Bonzo The Wittman D-12 "Bonzo" was an air racer designed by Steve Wittman for the Thompson Trophy races. The aircraft's top speed of made it faster than any United States military aircraft of the era. Development Wittman purchased a Curtiss D-12 engin ...

Felix

Fairey Firefly I The Fairey Firefly was a British fighter of the 1920s from Fairey Aviation. It was a single-seat, single-engine biplane of mixed construction. Development The Firefly was a private-venture design, penned by Marcel Lobelle. It was first flow ...

Fairey Fox The Fairey Fox was a British light bomber and fighter biplane of the 1920s and 1930s. It was originally produced in Britain for the RAF, but continued in production and use in Belgium long after it was retired in Britain. Development and desi ...

Specifications (Curtiss D-12/Felix)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. .

External links

Great Aircraft Engines - Curtiss D-12

a 1922 ''Flight'' article on the CD-12 {{USAF piston engines D-12 1920s aircraft piston engines