While the
Vought VE-7s were serving the Navy well in the early 1920s, they were not originally designed as fighters. The
Naval Aircraft Factory came up with a simple design driven by a 200
hp (150
kW)
Lawrance J-1 air-cooled
radial engine. Its boxy
fuselage was suspended between the upper and lower wings (essentially having both dorsal and ventral sets of
cabane struts), with the center area of the lower wing enlarged to accommodate a fuel tank.[2]
The NAF provided
Curtiss with the plans to build the aircraft, and the result, designated TS-1, arrived at
Anacostia on May 9, 1922. The TS-1 from Curtiss was delivered with
wheels, so the NAF also designed wooden floats to enable their use on vessels other than
aircraft carriers. Testing went well, and in late 1922 the Navy ordered 34 planes from Curtiss, with the first arriving on board the aircraft carrier
USS Langley in December. The NAF built another five themselves, as a test of relative costs, as well as four more used to experiment with water-cooled
inline engines.[2]
Two all-metal versions of the aircraft, F4C-1s, were developed by Curtiss. This aircraft made its first flight on September 4, 1924. The wings had tubular spars and stamped
duraluminum ribs, the fuselage was constructed of duraluminum tubing in a Warren truss form. Compared to the TS-1, the lower wing was raised to the base of the fuselage. The F4C-1 was armed with two .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns and was powered by a 200 hp nine-cylinder Wright J-3 radial.
Operational history
In addition to operating from the carrier deck, the TS-1s served for several years in floatplane configuration aboard
destroyers,
cruisers, and
battleships. The aircraft were slung over the side by
crane or launched from capital ship catapults. Squadron
VO-1 operated this way from 1922, and
VF-1 flew its float-equipped TS-1s from battleships in 1925 and 1926.[3]
The TS-1 was not universally liked by its crews. Positioning of the lower wing below the fuselage resulted in short wheel struts. This, and the wheels' placement close to each other, caused considerable problems with
ground looping.[4]
^Johnson, E.R., United States Naval Aviation, 1919-1941: Aircraft, Airships and Ships Between the Wars; McFarland, 2011;
ISBN078648585X, 9780786485857
^
abLloyd S. Jones, U.S. Naval Fighters (Fallbrook CA: Aero Publishers, 1977,
ISBN0-8168-9254-7), pp. 14-17
^
abcdefg"United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911" by Gordon Swanborough & Peter M. Bowers (Naval Institute Press Annapolis, MD,
ISBN0-87021-968-5) 1976, 546 pp.
^Melton USNR, Lt. Comdr. Dick. the Forty Year Hitch. Wyandotte, Michigan: Publishers Consulting Services, 1970
^"The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Directory of Airplanes their Designers and Manufacturers" ed. Dana Bell,
ISBN1-85367-490-7, 2002, page 88
^"Curtiss (NAF) TS-2/3". National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
^Bowers, Peter M. (1979). Curtiss aircraft, 1907-1947. London: Putnam. pp. 184–186.
ISBN0370100298.
^Swanborough, Gordon; Bowers, Peter M. (1990). United States Navy aircraft since 1911. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 368–370.
ISBN0-87021-792-5.