The Curtiss P-6 Hawk is an American single-engine biplane fighter introduced into service in the late 1920s with the
United States Army Air Corps and operated until the late 1930s prior to the outbreak of
World War II.
Design and development
The
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
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 ...
(which became the
Curtis-Wright Corporation (15 July 1929) supplied the USAAC with P-6s beginning in 1929.
Operational history
![Curtiss P-6 Hawk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Curtiss_P-6_Hawk.jpg)
A fast and highly maneuverable aircraft for its time, the XP-6 prototype took 2nd place in the 1927 U.S. National Air Races, and the XP-6A with wing surface
radiator
Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics.
A radiator is always a ...
s took first place, at 201 mph (323 km/h). The P-6 was flown in a variety of paint schemes depending on the squadron, the most famous being the "Snow Owl"
markings of the
17th Pursuit Squadron
17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number.
Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers.
In mathematics
17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as s ...
based at
Selfridge Field near
Detroit, Michigan.
The P-6Es served between 1932 and 1937 with the 1st Pursuit Group (17th and 94th PS) at Selfridge, and with the 8th Pursuit Group (33rd PS) at Langley Field, Virginia. Numerous accidents claimed at least 27 of the 46 aircraft delivered. As the P-6Es became obsolete, instead of receiving depot overhauls, they were allowed to wear out in service and were scrapped or sold. At least one survived into 1942 in
United States Army Air Forces service.
In 1932, Capt. Ruben C. Moffat flew a P-6 converted with a supercharged Conqueror engine on a record-breaking flight. He flew from Dayton, Ohio to Washington, D.C. at a speed of approximately 266 mph, at an altitude of 25,000 ft.
Variants
![Curtiss XP-17](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Curtiss_XP-17.jpg)
;XP-6: Model 34P, modified from a
P-1 with a
Curtiss V-1570-17 Conqueror
engine
;XP-6A: Model 34K, same as XP-6 but with untapered wings and wing radiators to reduce drag
;P-6A: 18 ordered by the U.S. Army, nine were fitted with Prestone- rather than water-cooled
V-1570
The Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror was a 12-cylinder V12 engine, vee liquid-cooled aircraft engine. Representing a more powerful version of the Curtiss D-12, the engine entered production in 1926 in aviation, 1926 and flew in numerous aircraft.Gunston ...
engines
;XP-6B:
P-1 converted to take the
V-1670 engine
;P-6C: cancelled
;XP-6D: XP-6B converted to take a
turbocharged
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...
V-1570-C
;P-6D: P-6As, (six of the seven surviving), re-engined in 1932 with turbocharged V-1570-C installed in 1932
;XP-6E: Model 35, also designated Y1P-22, ordered in July 1931 as P-6E prototype
;P-6E: 46 delivered in 1931–1932, equipped the 17th and 33rd Pursuit Squadrons
;XP-6F: Modified XP-6E with a
supercharger
In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
and an enclosed cockpit
;XP-6G: P-6E with a V-1570F
![Curtiss P-6S Cuban Hawk Ray Wagner Collection Image (16397542259)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Curtiss_P-6S_Cuban_Hawk_Ray_Wagner_Collection_Image_%2816397542259%29.jpg)
;XP-6H: P-6E with 4 × .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns mounted in the wings
;P-6S: Hawk I, three sold to Cuba with the 450 hp (336 kW)
Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp
The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp is an aircraft engine of the reciprocating type that was widely used in American aircraft from the 1920s onward. It was the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company's first engine, and the first of the famed Wasp series ...
radial, and one sold to Japan as the Japan Hawk with the V-1570 inverted Vee piston engine
;P-11: Three ordered with the
Curtiss H-1640 Chieftain engine of 600 hp (447 kW), two were completed with the V-1570 and redesignated ''P-6D''
;XP-17: P-1 used as a testbed for the experimental
Wright V-1470 air-cooled inverted vee
;
YP-20: P-11 converted with a
Wright Cyclone radial
![Curtiss XP-23 32-278 Ray Wagner Collection Image (16573634405)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Curtiss_XP-23_32-278_Ray_Wagner_Collection_Image_%2816573634405%29.jpg)
;XP-21: Two conversions of the
XP-3A used to test the 300 hp (224 kW)
Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial, one became the XP-21A when modified with the R-975, and the other was converted to the
P-1F standard
;
XP-22: Temporary designation for a P-6A used to test new radiator installations for the V-1570-23 and converted back to a ''P-6A''
;XP-23: Model 63, unfinished P-6E with light alloy
monocoque fuselage, improved tail, and a turbocharged G1V-1570C with a geared propeller and the turbocharger removed. Later redesignated YP-23
Operators
;
*
Republic of China Air Force operated 50 ''Hawk II''.
;
*
Cuban Air Force received three P-6S fighters with the 450 hp (336 kW) Wasp radial engine.
;
*Japan bought one P-6S, possibly updated with a Conqueror engine.
;
*
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force received eight examples of a P-6D with the Conqueror engine in 1930, another six were license-built by
Aviolanda in 1931 and sent to Dutch East Indies as well. Three P-6 were lost before war: two in midair collision on 27 February 1936 and one probably after crash-landing 5 February 1935.
;
*
United States Army Air Corps
;
*
Bolivian Air Force used the P-6S during the
Chaco War. On 22 December 1932 a P-6 Hawk from Fortín Vitriones attacked Paraguayan gunboat
ARP Tacuary
ARP ''Tacuary'' was a riverine gunboat in service on the Paraguayan Navy for almost a century. She was built in 1907 by T. & J. Hosking, Ireland, as the steel-hulled yacht ''Clover'' and initially named ''Adolfo Riquelme'' when acquired in 1911. which was anchored at Bahía Negra near ()
Surviving aircraft
![Curtiss P-6E Hawk USAF](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Curtiss_P-6E_Hawk_USAF.jpg)
A single P-6E survives. The aircraft was donated to the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
by Mr. Edward S. Perkins of
Anniston, Alabama and restored by the School of Aeronautics at
Purdue University. It is on indefinite loan and display at the
National Museum of the United States Air Force at
Wright-Patterson AFB
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wri ...
near
Dayton, Ohio. Originally s/n 32-261 and assigned to the 33rd Pursuit Squadron, it was dropped from records at Tampa Field, Florida, in September 1939. It was restored and marked as 32-240 of 17th Pursuit Squadron, missing on a flight over
Lake Erie on 24 September 1932.
Specifications (P-6E)
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Bowers, Peter M. "The Great Fighter Fly-Offs: Curtiss vs. Boeing". ''Wings'', Volume 31, Number 1, February 2001.
* Eden, Paul and Soph Moeng, eds. ''The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. London: Amber Books Ltd., 2002, .
*
External links
Air Force Link* https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035010/http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_files_05/5695/Curtiss_Hawk_16in_Comet_1935.pdf
Curtiss P-6E model plan
{{Wright Field project numbers
P-06
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Curtiss P-06
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1927