The Curtiss R3C is an American racing aircraft built in landplane and floatplane form. It was a single-seat biplane built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.
The R3C-1 was the landplane version and Cyrus Bettis won the Pulitzer Trophy Race in one on 12 October 1925 with a speed of .
The R3C-2 was a twin float seaplane built for the Schneider Trophy race. In 1925, it took place at Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore, Maryland. With , pilot Jimmy Doolittle won the trophy with a Curtiss R3C-2. The other two R3C-2s, piloted by George Cuddihy and Ralph Oftsie, did not reach the finish line. The next day, with the same plane on a straight course, Doolittle reached , a new world record. For the next Schneider Trophy, which took place on 13 November 1926, the R3C-2's engine was further improved, and pilot Christian Franck Schilt took second place with .
Operators
United States Navy - two examples
United States Army Air Service - one example
Survivors
The R3C-2 that Jimmy Doolitle piloted to victory in the 1925 Schneider Trophy race is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre, at Washington Dulles Airport, Virginia. It still wears its '3' 1925 racing number.
Specifications (R3C-2)
In culture
A Curtiss R3C appears in Hayao Miyazaki's 1992 animated movie Porco Rosso featuring a romanticized interwar aviation. The Curtiss R3C is flown by a pilot himself named Curtis. The dialogues also reference the 1925 Schneider Trophy.
See also
Curtiss CR
References
Angelucci, Enzo. World Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft. London:Willow Books, 1984. . Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London:Putnam, 1979. . Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter M. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London:Putnam, 1976. . The Golden Age of Aviation – Curtiss R3C-2 Pulitzer Trophy web site Schneider Trophy 1925 web site (french) German edition “Flugzeuge”, Enzo Angelucci, 1974 results of the Schneider Trophy from the Society of Air Racing Historians