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Showing results for tags 'Curtiss CR-3'.
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Well here I go, I'm in! Let me start by taking you back in time a little. This machine, which had won the 1921 Pulitzer Trophy (at average 176.7mph), as the Curtiss CR-1... *SDASM .. and had then gone on to place third in the 1922 Pulitzer Trophy (at 193.2mph) as the CR-2, modified to replace those drag-inducing pineapple-like Lamblin radiators with integral upper-wing surface radiators... *SDASM ... was further modified by Curtiss for the US Navy as the CR-3 floatplane, contesting in 1923 as the first ever US entry to the annual international Schneider Trophy race - and won! (at average 177.38mph / max 181.87mph): *P (scroll through to watch from 22:00 to 26:05mins for the bit on the 1923 race & the significance of the CR-3, within a lecture by Mike Marsden, former head of wind tunnels Airbus, given to the Bristol Aero Society). This machine would go on to be further modified in 1924, and as the CR-4 it set a closed-circuit speed record for seaplanes of 188.08mph. Back to the present. Inspired by this group build theme, and Curtiss' successful transformation of a land plane to floatplane I have decided to do just the same at 1/48 scale (hopefully also successfully!!), by converting this kit (labelled CR-2 but I think actually CR-1?!) ... ... to the Schneider Trophy winning CR-3 floatplane! (Noix did also make a CR-3 .. but I know not to hold my breath waiting for such a thing to appear!) It will be a bit of a kit-bash: the lovely Noix resin fuselage & flying surfaces + floats from a donor Testors (Hawk) Curtiss R3C-2 + some etched detail bits for those floats taken from an XS Models upgrade intended for the Testors kit. This may seem a bit wasteful of both the R3C-2 kit & upgrade, but after I had put these in the stash I later came across the far superior Noix kit of the same machine, which made them redundant. This will be putting them to some use after all. Oh, and finally I'll add a pilot - probably white metal from Phoenix Figures - as I intend to display the machine in flight. So that's my submission, hope to be underway very soon! g. Here's a final image to build the excitement! *SDASM Images so marked have been sourced from San Diego Air and Space Museum online archives. I waded through the 'terms of use' and believe I'm not in breach by using these images here .. but let me know if not & I will remove! *P Pathe .. much the same as above!