Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Kommandant on February 20, 2004, 05:03:05 PM
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Name this Aircraft, and Its Country of Service
Note: I only know the Aircraft name, not the manufacture, and I could not find details on that.
(http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Aircraft/SeamewMkI_FN475_IWM.jpg)
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Isn't the country of service rather easy to figure out from the markings on the wings?
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Its Black and White, Could be British, French, Aussie..
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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)
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Curtiss SO3C-2C Seamew... Normally a float plane, they could be fitted with a fixed landing gear. The upturned wingtips were needed to offset instability inherent without the central float.
Most Seamews where deployed aboard combat ships, such as Cruisers and Battleships for gunnery observation and over-the- horizon scouting.
My regards,
Widewing
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Originally posted by Arlo
(From the same website the image came from ;0)
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