The Curtiss SO3C-1 Seamew was a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft developed by the US Navy and were sold to Great Britain under Lend-Lease. It was originally called the Seagull in the States but following the naming of the "Seamew" by the FAA it was later also adopted by the USN. The original SO3C-2 Lend-Lease version delivered to the FAA had additional bomb rack under fuselage and arrester gear as well as other refinements over USN versions. The next version was the Seamew 1, the FAA equivalent of SO3-2C. 250 lend-lease aircraft were ordered for the FAA.
While the Seamew was intended for catapult launch on the Royal Navy's ships, it never saw operational service. Many of the first aircraft were initially transferred from Roosevelt Field in March 1943 to TOC 1 NAGS Yarmouth and on to the RN January 1944 for shipping amongst others to Worthy Down. Since the type was not a great success it was declared obsolete and scrapped from September 1944 onwards. The aircraft was relegated to second line squadron usage and the majority of the aircraft were used to train TAG's in Canada. The last aircraft in the RN served until 1945.
In addition to the Curtiss SO3C-1 Seamew there was the Queen Seamew, which was the FAA equivalent of SO3-1K; 30 were ordered under lend-lease. Ordered under Requisition No. BAC/N-1-857. Cancelled. Intended delivery of 30 target drone conversions never materialised.Remaining at Roosevelt Field, before converstion to RN Queen Seamews.
(From the same website the image came from ;0)
