Curtiss F6C-1 Hawk (oz5990)

About this Plan

Curtiss F6C-1 Hawk. Scale model biplane for .60 power and RC. Scale is 1/6.

Quote: "Curtiss F6C-1 Hawk, by Eugene Martin. A highly detailed 2-inch scale model of the Navy version of the Army's distinctive P-1 Hawk (see Pete Westburg's scale drawings in this and the preceding two issues). Text includes a wealth of detailing techniques of use to all scale modelers.

Who doesn't know of the flamboyant Curtiss P-6E Hawk fighter, with its talon-decorated wheel pants? What a sexy airplane! Unfortunately, this is not the story of this colorful AAF pursuit ship, but rather its all-silver, not-so-gawdy granddaddy, the Curtiss F6C-1 Hawk (alias P-1A).

The fighters of the mid-twenties were virtually monopolized by Curtiss and Boeing, and many of the designs looked so similar that it is a wonder that the pilots of the day could keep them straight. But it was Curtiss with his racing expertise who set the trends of the early decade, with the characteristic ever-sharp pencil nose of his biplanes being the trademark of the early Hawks. The last of the double-bay biplane fighters, the Curtiss PW-8, won acclaim with Lieutenant Russell Maughan's dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight of 1924.

From the PW-8. it was a quick design shuffle to the Army's P-1A. A tunnel radiator replaced the wing skin radiators, and tapered wings were fitted for greater maneuverability. While the Army was getting all the glory with the P-1A, the Navy seemed content to play 'follow the leader,' and the P-1A became the Navy's F6C-1. The -1's were only five in number, being used as evaluation prototypes. Production models were F6C-3's.

The Hawk flunked its catapult test, but it did prove to be a reasonable carrier-based aircraft. (See the Red Ripper Squadron in LiS Naval Fighters 1920 to 1980, by Loyed F. Jones.) The Navy didn't particularly favor the Curtiss V-1150-1 rwelve-cylinder inline water-cooled engine. It was too heavy and the vulner-ability of the chin radiator was discon-certing. So. the Navy Hawks were re-engined with the P&W air-cooled Wasp. With this transformation to the radial engine went the distinctive deep chin and the beauty of the needle-nosed streamlined cowling Jost for the sake of a mere 1-mph gain in speed.

The genius of my Hawk model was actually a spinoff from an old 'Giant Kit' of the F-11C-2. I had built the kit, only to discover when 1 went looking for documentation that the model was totally out of scale. 1 used a Wylam plan book to check out the discrepancies, and as I leafed through the pages, my fantasies began to wander to some of the other biplanes illustrated. A two-page drawing of the F6C-2 caught my eye, and soon was planning its probable success as a scale subject. I recalled a mention by Dave Platt in his book Scale In Hand. He said: How about the P-1? It should make an excellent flying scale model.

Further examination revealed the streamlined cowl was deep enough to conceal the engine and exhaust system, and I would also not have to detail a radial engine. The fuselage was a simple box with no compound curves or intricate structures. The wing sported a Clark-Y airfoil, and the tail surfaces were extremely generous. The landing gear had large wheels (to help avoid nosing over) and the gear was mounted well forward of the center of gravity, which usually means good ground handling. Finally, the amount of scale detailing required would be simple and at the same time interesting enough to make a very competitive model.

Since my building practices were totally oriented to kits, I decided to keep the structure of my Hawk as much like an out-of-the-box kit model as possible. The plans, therefore, are just like some-thing you would find in a kit. You can be sure there are no surprises in store for you if you build this model.

One of the most important design features of my Hawk is its light weight. I set 7-1/2 pounds as my goal. The judi-cious selection of woods and the use of Monokote kept the Hawk at its target weight. However, since the Scale R/C Modeler article, a new landing gear has been made (full scale, including shocks) which has increased the weight to 8 pounds. Interestingly, the extra weight had no effect on the performance of the model.

RCMB's editor asked me to include some construction and finish notes on building the Hawk. After restudying the plans and retracing my building steps, I decided there are only a few areas worthy of comment. Being an all-balsa airplane, there are no exotic materials to chat about, and I'm not about to tell you scale buffs how to glue wood together. It is an honest model to build for anyone who can follow a set of plans. The materials and hardware are called out by manufacturer and item numbers. All required patterns are also on the prints and called out by name or number, or both.

It should be noted that the wings get progressively thinner toward the tips. This thinning happens equally on the upper and lower surfaces of both the top and bottom wings. Therefore the upper wing, which hasn't any dihedral, isn't flat on its lower surface..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics, thanks to theshadow.

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