Curtiss R3C

The Curtiss R3C was an American single-seat racing biplane built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company in landplane and floatplane form. The R3C-1 landplane won the 1925 Pulitzer Trophy race in the hands of Cyrus Bettis at 248.9 miles per hour. The R3C-2 was a twin-float seaplane built for the Schneider Trophy, and Jimmy Doolittle won the 1925 contest on Chesapeake Bay at 232.57 miles per hour before setting a world record of 245.7 miles per hour on a straight course the next day. For the 1926 race its engine was improved and Christian Schilt finished second. The United States Navy took two examples and the Army Air Service one. Doolittle's R3C-2 survives at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles Airport.