Curtiss Tanager

The Curtiss Model 54 Tanager was a small biplane constructed in 1929 as the Curtiss entry in the Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition. It was a conventional biplane with a highly streamlined fuselage, outlined like that of the Curtiss Eagle but much smaller. Automatic leading-edge slots on the upper wing, flaps along the full span of the upper wing and floating ailerons on the lower wing gave it a stalling speed of only 31 miles per hour and let it land in 90 feet. Only the Tanager and the Handley Page Gugnunc passed the qualifying round, and the Tanager won the 100,000 dollar prize by a single point. Handley Page sued Curtiss over the leading-edge slot, and Curtiss counter-sued over six of its own patents. The Tanager was later destroyed in a grass fire started by engine sparks.