Curtiss Carrier Pigeon

The Curtiss Carrier Pigeon was a single-engined biplane mail plane of the 1920s, the first clean-sheet design made specifically for United States airmail service. In 1925 the Post Office still flew converted Airco D.H.4s, and Curtiss drew up the Carrier Pigeon around strength, serviceability and ease of maintenance, for night runs between Chicago and New York. It used a powerful 400 hp Liberty L-12 engine, a welded steel tube fuselage, interchangeable wings and tail surfaces, and a watertight cargo hold at the centre of gravity that held up to 1,000 lb of mail. A prototype placed seventh in the 1925 Edsel B. Ford Reliability Tour, and ten went into service with National Air Transport, which Clement Keys also controlled.