Subject: Tenth in the Series--The Curtiss XP-10

From: [email-masked] (Joseph F Baugher)
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:19:33 GMT

>From Joseph F Baugher <[email-masked]>

The Curtiss XP-10 was designed and built under an Army contract  dated
June  18,  1928,  which  called for a new pursuit aircraft having good
maneuverability and high speed at high altitude.

The upper wing of the XP-10 had a gull form, and was  joined  directly
to  the  fuselage.  By eliminating the wing center section in front of
and above the cockpit, the traditional upward and forward  blind  spot
for the pilot was removed, and exceptionally good pilot visibility was
anticipated.  In the pursuit  of  higher  speed,  Curtiss  decided  to
readopt  the old PW-8 style surface radiators for the XP-10, and these
were fitted to the upper and lower surfaces of the inner half  of  the
top wing.  The  fuselage  was  of  steel tube construction with fabric
skinning.  The wings were of wood, enveloped in the  special  "Curtiss
ply"   covering.   The  powerplant  was  a  600-hp  Curtiss  V-1570-15
Conqueror liquid-cooled engine.  The Conqueror was mounted  inside  an
extremely tight-fitting and well-streamlined cowling, made possible by
the use of the wing-mounted radiators.  The two-bladed  propeller  was
capped  with  a  spinner  which faired neatly into the engine cowling.
The result was an airplane with extremely clean and attractive lines.

The XP-10 (Ser No 28-387) was delivered to the Army in April 1930.  It
made  its  first  flight  one  month  later.  As  expected,  the pilot
visibility was excellent.  However, the performance of the  XP-10  was
rather  disappointing,  being  only  marginally better than the Army's
contemporary Hawk models powered by the  same  Conqueror  engine.  The
major  fault  with  the  P-10 was with the old PW-8 style surface wing
radiators.  These proved to be quite as troublesome as they  were  for
the  PW-8,  and  were the principal reason for the Army's rejection of
the design.

During tests, the XP-10 attained a maximum speed of  191  mph  at  sea
level  and  215 mph at 12,000 feet.  Initial climb was 1650 ft/min and
service ceiling was 26,500 feet.  Range was 461 miles.   Weights  were
3040 lb. empty, 3975 lbs gross.  The XP-10 was armed with two 0.30-cal
machine guns in the  upper  fuselage  cowling,  synchronized  to  fire
through the propeller arc.

The XP-10 was scrapped by the Army in August 1931 after only ten hours
of  flight  time.   Thereafter,  Curtiss  confined its biplane pursuit
development to variants of the established Hawk line.

Sources:

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angellucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books,
  1987.

  Curtiss Aircraft: 1907-1947, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press,
  1987.

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548