Curtiss Eagle

The Curtiss Eagle, later designated the Model 19 by Curtiss, was an American biplane airliner built in small numbers shortly after World War I. It had three-bay, unstaggered wings of equal span and a carefully streamlined monocoque fuselage that gave both the crew and the passengers a fully enclosed cabin, which was very advanced for its day. The original Eagle had three 150 horsepower Curtiss K-6 engines and carried two pilots and eight passengers, and it is sometimes named as the first American trimotor aircraft. Curtiss built it for an expected boom in civil flying, but cheap war surplus aircraft met most of the demand and only about 20 were made. They included one twin-engined Eagle II and three single-engined Eagle IIIs, which the US Army Air Service used as staff transports and as an air ambulance.