Boeing F3B

The Boeing F3B was a biplane fighter and fighter bomber that served with the United States Navy from 1928 into the early 1930s. Designed by the company as its Model 74, it was an incremental improvement over the F2B. The XF3B-1 prototype still had the F2B's tapered wings and was built as a single-float seaplane, but as carriers displaced floating fighters the production F3B-1, the Model 77, gained a larger, slightly swept upper wing and a redesigned tail with corrugated aluminum surfaces. It first flew on 3 February 1928 and won Boeing a contract for 73 more. F3Bs flew from the carriers Langley, Saratoga and Lexington, stayed in first-line service until 1932, and were then kept as command and staff transports for several more years.