@ Washington, D.C.
August 2018
Hanging in the Pioneers of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum is this sleek Curtiss R3C seaplane. In 1912 a wealthy French aviation enthusiast, Jacques Schneider, established a trophy to be awarded annually to the winner of a race to be flown over water in seaplanes. Then there was the Pulitzer Trophy Race, sponsored by American newspaperman Ralph Pulitzer, to promote high speed in landplanes. In 1925 the U.S. Army and Navy ordered from the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company three aircraft of the same basic design but with key variations. This airplane was the R3C-1/R3C-2 (the -1 is the landplane and the -2 the seaplane version). The 1925 Pulitzer Trophy Race and the Schneider Cup were both won by the two versions of the R3C. On the day after the Schneider Race, Army Lt. James “Jimmy” Doolittle flew the R3C-2 over a straight course at a world record speed of 245.7 mph.
