SOMEONE HAD TO BE FIRST

The seaplane was essential to our Navy and Marine Corps in the earliest days of military aviation.  With the aircraft carrier years away from reality, planes operating from ships at sea needed to be hoisted overboard to take-off and land on the water.  It was not uncommon for the more popular land-based planes to be fitted with floats or skids for such duty.  But these floats added extra weight and drag and decreased performance.  So much so that a stall in a seaplane always resulted in an unrecoverable spin and the loss of both the pilot and plane.

The Curtiss N-9 (and a knock-off built by Burgess) was the seaplane version of the famous JN-4 “Jenny” in which so many early military pilots had learned to fly.  Fitted with a large midline float, and smaller wingtip floats for balance on the water, the N-9 was a familiar biplane trainer at the newly established Naval Aeronautic Station in Pensacola.  Here 1^st LT Francis T. Evans, USMC, had come to do his part to advance Marine Corps aviation.  He listened to the debates over whether a seaplane could perform the aerobatics necessary to dogfight in combat, and he bravely set out this day to prove it once and for all.

Out over Pensacola Bay at 3500 feet he pushed the nose over into a dive to gain enough speed to go “over the top” in a loop.  The 100 HP Curtiss OXX-6 engine strained as Evans pulled the stick back and the nose pitched up.  Slowly the biplane clawed its way to a vertical attitude.  But before it reached the top, the aircraft stalled, fell over backward, and plunged headlong, spiraling toward the water.  Resisting the temptation to counter-steer with the stick (which has no effect in a spin), Evans instead threw the stick forward and used the rudder to steady the biplane.  In doing so he converted a terminal spin to a dive and pulled out well above the surface–the first time in history a seaplane had recovered from a spin!  He then climbed back up and tried a loop again.  Several times he tried, stalling, spinning, and recovering each time until he had finally gauged the right dive length and speed that took the N-9 up and over the loop in controlled flight.  On his last attempt his boxy N-9 glided through the loop in a manner that would have been the envy of any barnstormer.  And just to make sure his new technique was witnessed, upon his return to the base he repeated the loop over the hangars.  Evans’ techniques were quickly incorporated into flight training at the station. 

By risking his own life, Evans had solved a major shortcoming of seaplanes.  However it was not until thirty years later in 1936 that Evans was recognized for his achievement, receiving then the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  18 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Condon, John P.  U.S. Marine Corps Aviation.  Washington, DC: GPO, p. 5.

“Curtiss N-9H.”  Smithsonian Air and Space Museum website.  www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/curtiss_n9H.htm, 19 March 2006.

Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare).  United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 24.

“History of Marine Corps Aviation, The Early Years.”  Ace Pilots website, www.acepilots.com/usmc/hist1.html, 19 March 2006.

Larkins, William T.  U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941, U.S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959.  Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub. Ltd., 1995, p. 2.

Mersky, Peter B.  U.S. Marine Corps Aviation:  1912 to the Present, 3rd ed.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1997, pp. 5-6.

Taylor, Michael J.H.  Jane’s American Fighting Aircraft of the 20th Century.  New York, NY: Mallard Press, 1991, p. 115.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  A spin is a precipitous nose-down fall to the ground in which the aircraft spirals around one wingtip.  The natural reaction of many novice pilots is to counter-steer with the ailerons, though in a spin airflow across the wing is disorganized and ailerons are ineffective.  Evans reasoned that the rudder could be used to slow the spin, in a similar manner to that used by land-based pilots.  Though the extra drag created by the floats makes this maneuver less efficient, it is nevertheless effective.

To accommodate the weight of the floats the wingspan of the N-9 had to be increased 10 feet over that of the “Jenny.”  The fuselage had to be lengthened and larger tail surfaces added.  Used primarily as a trainer, the Navy purchased 560 N-9‘s starting in 1917, some of whom were fitted with stronger 150 HP Hispano-Suiza engines (the N-9H) for use as bombers during WWI.  The N-9 remained in service with the Navy until 1926.  Only one example of an N-9 survives today, restored by the Naval Air Engineering Laboratory in 1966 and transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.

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