Curtiss Wanamaker Triplane

The Wanamaker Triplane, the Curtiss Model T and later the Model 3, was a large experimental four-engined triplane patrol flying boat of the First World War. The American businessman Rodman Wanamaker, who had already commissioned the flying boat America for a transatlantic attempt, ordered an even larger boat from Curtiss in 1915. Early press reports showed a six-bay triplane of 133 ft span with six engines; the aircraft built had four 250 hp Curtiss V-4 engines on the middle wing and an enclosed cabin for two pilots and a flight engineer. The Royal Naval Air Service ordered twenty, but only the first, completed at Buffalo in July 1916, ever was. It was the largest seaplane in the world and the first four-engined aircraft built in America.