Vintage Curtiss PW-8 #52 Army Biplane Fighter Photo, Hawk Ancestor, 1920s
Same type as Maughan\'s 1924 dawn-to-dusk record flightDESCRIPTIONThis is a vintage black and white photograph of a Curtiss PW-8, the U.S. Army\'s water-cooled pursuit biplane of the mid-1920s and the direct ancestor of the Curtiss Hawk, as identified by the hand lettering on the reverse. A large white 52 is painted on the fuselage side and again on the underside of the lower wing, and the close detail shows the pointed spinner and two-blade propeller, the cowled nose that housed the Curtiss D-12 engine, and the stitched fabric seams along the fuselage. The reverse is hand lettered Curtiss PW-8 and Al Thomitz Coll in blue ink, and the front carries a negative-style number reading N-464-10-25. If the last two groups are a date, they point to October 1925, when PW-8s were still flying with the Army\'s 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Michigan.The PW-8 grew out of Curtiss racing work, and the first prototype appeared in 1923. The Army ordered three prototypes in April 1923 and 25 production aircraft that September, with deliveries starting in June 1924. It was faster than its rival, the Boeing PW-9, but its wing surface radiators were prone to leaking and were judged vulnerable to gunfire, so the Army chose the Boeing for its main production fighter. Curtiss kept refining the design, and a PW-8 rebuilt with tapered wings and a tunnel radiator under the engine became the prototype for the P-1 Hawk, the first of a family of roughly 200 PW-8 and Hawk-series aircraft delivered to the Army.The type\'s best-known moment came on June 23, 1924. Army Lt. Russell Maughan took off from Mitchel Field on Long Island at 3:58 a.m. and landed at Crissy Field in San Francisco at 9:46 p.m., about 2,670 miles and five fuel stops later, completing the first dawn-to-dusk crossing of the United States by air. Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell had planned the flight, and Maughan had been forced down in two attempts in July 1923 before succeeding in a PW-8 carrying extra fuel. The airplane in this photograph is not individually identified. It is offered as a period view of the type that made that flight possible.Every image in this listing was scanned at 600dpi so you can inspect the numerals, the markings and the surface detail before you buy.Every effort is made for fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you are unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I will make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via USPS Ground Advantage with tracking, so you know exactly when it will arrive. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout. Rigid, professional packaging on all shipments, sealed and protected in acid free protectors.CONDITIONVintage black and white print on photographic paper with a white border, in good condition for its age. The image is soft in places with visible grain, as expected from a ground-level snapshot of the airplane, and a few small dust specks and faint spots show in the sky and ground areas. The negative-style number N-464-10-25 is lettered at the top of the image. The reverse is clean cream paper with light age toning at the edges and the blue ink notations Curtiss PW-8 and Al Thomitz Coll. Please review all photos, as they show the actual item you will receive.
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