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      07-28-2023, 07:42 AM   #1697
Llarry
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Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with the first powered flight of an aircraft and established the Wright Aeronautical Company soon after. But the company did not make aircraft for long; they soon specialized in aircraft engines.

The Navy bought a single Wright XF3W-1 Apache airplane in 1926 with power from a 1,654 cubic-inch Wright P-1 radial. This aircraft was later re-engined with an R-1340 Wasp engine from the new Pratt & Whitney company, a competitor.

The XF3W-1 was unarmed and was flown in both landplane and floatplane form. It set altitude records of 38,500 feet in floatplane form in 1929 and an amazing 43,166 feet in landplane form the next year. (How would you like to be cruising along in your jet airliner at 30,000-plus foot altitude and spot this little biplane a few thousand feet above!?) Ninety-plus years later, I think it's hard to appreciate the difficulties of taking an open-cockpit biplane up to those altitudes. The third photo shows LT Soucek suited up for his flight and ready for the very bitter cold that awaited him at that high altitude.

Given the experimental character of this aircraft, perhaps a better designation would have been RW (R = Racer, W = Wright). The Navy didn't buy many racing airplanes and the designation didn't last long, but this little one was speedy for the time.
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