Mystery Airplane Contest April

The Curtiss Hawk series of fighters began with the Army's PW-8 (PW = Pursuit Water-Cooled) in 1924, and evolved from the P-1 to the P-6. The Navy followed with land and carrier-based models called the F6C.

While the Army continued with liquid-cooled inlines, the Navy moved to the F6C-4 with air-cooled radials. The peak of the Curtiss models was the F11C, later re-designated BFC, for dive bombing.

On 18 October 1932, the Navy let Contract #28847 to Curtiss for 28 production F11C-2 fighter-bombers. The first of these was delivered on 11 March 1933 at an average unit cost of $13,108.68. The final...