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| Keywords: Curtiss N2C-2 Naval Aviation Museum.jpg The museum's N2C-2 Fledgling was acquired and restored in Navy colors by Roy Reagan of Chico California who donated the aircraft to the museum in 1983 It is painted in the markings of the Bureau Number A-8529 which beginning in 1930 served at Quantico Virginia and Navy Reserve Air Base NRAB Grosse Ile Michigan before being stricken from the Navy's inventory and transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1939 As late as the mid-1920s flight students at Naval Air Station NAS Pensacola Florida completed at least part of their training in N-9 seaplanes the same aircraft in which their World War I predecessors learned to fly The Navy sought to remedy this situation through the procurement of a new generation of primary trainers including the N2C Fledgling which won a 1928 Navy design competition for new training platforms Yet the aircraft hardly appeared cutting edge when it first rolled off the assembly line the maze of struts and wires on the wings more than that on a wartime Curtiss Jenny As was the procedure at that time with the design of naval aircraft the prototypes were delivered in both landplane and seaplane configurations and provided tandem seating for student and instructor All told the Navy accepted 51 production versions of the aircraft 31 N2C-1s and 20 N2C-2s the majority of which were assigned not to Pensacola but to Naval Reserve Air Bases throughout the country During their service one N2C became the only Navy aircraft to ever be outfitted with a unique 170 horsepower Curtiss Challenger engine featuring twin rows of six cylinders each In addition a handful were fitted with tricycle landing gear and radio controls for use as target drones In this capacity on 14 September 1938 one of these drones performed a simulated dive-bombing attack against the battleship USS Utah BB 31 the unintentional but nevertheless first demonstration of an air to surface missile U S Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No 1983 065 001 http //collections naval aviation museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/Display php irn 16010207 QueryPage 2FQuery php 1983 U S Navy PD-USGov-Military-Navy Curtiss N2C Fledgling Aircraft at National Museum of Naval Aviation | ||||
