Curtiss XF6C-6 Hawk

To compete in the open competition of the 1930 National Air Races, now named the Thompson Prize, the Naval Air Service prepared thoroughly. The Curtiss F6C-3 A7147, which had shortly before won the Curtiss Navy Cup race in Marine Corps colors, was sent to Buffalo in June 1930, where it underwent the largest rebuild ever performed on a Hawk series machine. The lower wing was removed, the upper wing was moved back to preserve the center of gravity, and it was largely covered with brass surface cooling plates modeled after previous Curtiss racing aircraft. The engine was replaced with a new Curtiss Conqueror, modified for higher power, the entire fuselage was rounded, and it also received a new bonneted self-supporting chassis.


No flight tests beyond basic were conducted with the machine, which was given the new designation XF6C-6, so no performance is recorded. However, the calculated top speed was over 400 km/h. Due to the pilot, again Capt. Page, who had won the Curtiss Cup in the original machine, quickly earned the nickname Page Navy Racer. The number 27 XF6C-6 easily completed 17 laps out of 20 and was leading, but then Page probably passed out due to carbon monoxide poisoning and the machine crashed. Page died, and the race winner was Charles W. Holman in a Laird Solution special. Page's top speed on the circuit was 353.4 km/h, Holman won with an average speed of 324.9 km/h.


After Page's tragic death, the Navy's participation in closed-circuit racing ended; the Army Air Corps had ended the year before. However, the changes made to the XFC-6 were later applied to other machines, most notably its self-supporting landing gear, then used on the Army P-6E, Navy F11C-2, and export Hawk II.

XF6C-6 but was not the first machine with this designation. Already in 1929, originated the F6C-6, without the prefix for the experimental machine, which was also originally an order F6C-3. It was about the aircraft A7144, which was sent to the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, that has been adapted for the National air races. Those were this year for the first time divided into several parts, and the most prestigious of them, race around pylons on a closed circuit (as mentioned, about a year later named Thompson price), he was also opened to civilian machines. The main changes to the A7144 accounted for the removal of the radiator, which was replaced by two smaller, placed in the fuselage behind the engine, the air being supplied by means of the traps on the sides. In the technical records of the aircraft by the way was not about racing to even mention, instead, was officially intended to verify the suitability of the cooling liquid Preston - a year after the navy ceased operations machines with liquid-cooled engines... Other modifications was the roundness of the bottom of the fuselage and replacement of the chassis of the lighter, later equipped also the large "slippers". It was originally tested still with the old designation, but it was changed just before the race.

The national air races took place at the turn of August and September in the Cleveland, and the F6C-6 piloted by Cdr J. J. Clark stood here against six opponents, including an army XP-3A. For both military machine ended the race around pylons humiliation, because the winner became the Travel Air R "The Mystery Ship" Doug Davis, a civilian. XP-3A won at least second place, and the F6C-6 finished with an average speed 246,8 km/h fourth, for both lockheed Vega Roscoe Turner. After the race was returned to its original form, only the curvature of the bottom of the hull remained, and was returned to service among the rest of the F6C-3..