2/26/2012

Curtiss Twin JN Prototype, 1916


When I promised "some" photos of the Curtiss Twin JN in my last post, I honestly thought I had five or six photos to share with you.  I'm sorry to say these three were the only ones I found.  It is possible that there are more in another album, but I haven't had time to dig the next one out.  I have a substantial number of photos yet to publish from the first aviation scrapbook, too.

Anyway, the Curtiss Twin, as Ivan titled it, didn't meet with the success that the rest of the JN models did.  You'll see in the next photo that float models of it were tested as well.  The following photo also seems to be from a parade in which Curtiss displayed some aircraft.  I'll have more photos of that parade in a future post.

Displaying the float version of the Curtiss Twin JN in 1916.

Curtiss Twin JN at the Curtiss School in 1916

I'm afraid that last photo wasn't developed with much care.  Despite that, I find the horizontal strut leading to the aft end of the engine mounts pretty curious.  Your comments are welcome!  I would love to hear from anyone with more knowledge of these old planes.  I think I have the blog settings set so that anyone may comment, but they will be moderated first.

For the next post, I believe I'll post some crash photos. There's no shortage of crashed JNs in the collection! Earlier, I had learned that Steve MacGordon was involved with a crash resulting in a fire, and that he had died in the hospital as a result of his burns.  I believe many of these photos are from that crash.  Jennies don't take well to bad landings, and most of the crash scenes in the collection are just various nose-overs, but others are a bit scarier.

Until then, thanks for viewing; and if you're enjoying the collection, please give a Share or a +1 on Google, if you'd be so kind.

-kpw

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4 comments:

  1. Brian KarliFebruary 26, 2012 at 7:18 PM

    Hi Kurt,

    I think the horizontal brace is a fuel line. I would suspect the fuel tank is in the fuselage between the cockpits.

    Thanks for posting the wonderful pictures.

    Cheers

    Brian

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  2. KPWFebruary 26, 2012 at 8:24 PM

    Brian, that makes sense. They really didn't think much about streamlining in those days, or vibration either, apparently. :)

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  3. Varese2002April 12, 2012 at 11:19 PM

    The Library of Congress picture collection holds a few original glass negatives of the Curtiss Twin Jenny placed before the Congress Building. They have scanned them in an almost outrageous detail of maximum 150 MB TIFF (!).

    There are a whole lot of them but a few are

    http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hec2008001690/

    http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hec2008001688/

    Do note that Curtiss was probably in a hurry to place the machine there as this appears to be a land based Twin Jenny with a standard undercarriage where floats are fitted in a somewhat makeshift manner.

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  4. KPWApril 13, 2012 at 9:44 AM

    Great photos! They are taken in front of the same building as above, it looks like to me. I also recognize Ralph Taylor, the tall fellow in the center of the second photo. Excellent find!

    I read somewhere that the Twin JN on floats was only a prototype and never saw production, but that was from only one source.

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