Naval Aircraft Factory PN

The Naval Aircraft Factory PN was a series of open-cockpit American twin-engine biplane flying boats of the 1920s and 1930s, developed from the First World War Felixstowe F5L. PN-5 was the new designation given to F.5Ls built by the factory after 1922, with P for patrol and N for the Naval Aircraft Factory. The later PN-7 to PN-12 versions changed wings, hulls and engines, moving from wooden to metal hulls and from Wright and Packard V-12 engines to radial engines, and the PN-12 became the basis for production patrol boats built by Douglas, Keystone and Martin. In August 1925 a PN-9 flying from San Francisco to Hawaii ran out of fuel after 1,841 miles, and its crew rigged sails from wing fabric and sailed the aircraft about 450 miles further before it was found off Kauai.