Curtiss F7C Seahawk

The Curtiss F7C Seahawk was a carrier-capable biplane fighter used by the United States Navy and Marine Corps in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Curtiss called it the Model 43, its first aircraft designed expressly for the Navy rather than adapted from an Army type; it descended from the P-1 Hawk but had constant-chord wings with slight upper-wing sweepback. A 450 hp Pratt and Whitney R-1340-B Wasp radial drove it, and its aluminium and steel tube fuselage was strong enough for dive bombing. The prototype first flew on 28 February 1927 and 17 F7C-1 production aircraft served with Marine fighter squadron VF-5M and the Red Devils aerobatic team until 1933.