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Golden Age 1928/38   Curtiss Hawk II Export version - $16.50
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The Curtiss Hawk II represented the end of a lengthy period of a Boeing monopoly on single seat fighter sales to the US Navy. This is not to say that Curtiss products or those of other manufacturers were unsatisfactory or that Boeing had an unethical relationship with US Navy procurement officers since Curtiss had sold a number of two-seaters to the Navy during this period.

   

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The first Hawk II variant who´s US Navy designation was F11 C1 was an elegant radial engined biplane with metal wings that were fabric covered and tapered towards the wing tips The tail surfaces and ailerons were also of metal and were metal skinned.

 

 
   
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Originally it was equipped with a 600 Hp Wright SR-1500 fourteen cylinder two row radial engine. The fuselage was a relatively conventional metal tube structure that was metal skinned from the cockpit forward while the rear fuselage was fabric covered.

 

 
   
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The landing gear consisted of spatted single leg main units and a steerable tail wheel
The Hawk II was a quite successful design and was exported to a fair number of customers both in its standard land based version and a fair number of Sea Hawk II
 

 
   
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Major operators included Bolivia(9), China (50), Colombia (26), Siam (12) and Turkey (24). Except for the Turkish machines all of these Hawks saw intensive combat service. Additionally Hawk II fighters were sold in ones, two's and threes to various small scale operators including the famous two Hawks that were sold to WW1 ace Ernst Udet 3)
 

 
 
   
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Ernst Udet, Germany s highest-scoring surviving First World War Ace, one of the world s leading acrobatic pilots, and an aircraft designer, was greatly impressed by Al Williams demonstrations of precision dive-bombing in the Gulfhawk I at the National Air Races.

 

 
 
   
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Udet then persuaded the Germany Air Ministry to purchase two Hawk Us for the still-secret Luftwaffe to be used in the study and evaluation of vertical dive-bombing techniques.The first German Hawk II was delivered early in 1934 with German civil registration D-3165.

 

 
 
   
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This was changed to D-IRIS when the German registration system was changed from numbers to letters later that year. The second was delivered as D-IRIK.The D-IRIS were destroyed,no completed D-IRIK is today in Air-Museum Krakow. Who used them to give breathtaking aerobatics displays that contributed to convincing the leadership of Third Reich of the viability of dive-bombing which resulted in the introduction into service of the Ju 87 dive bombers that blasted Hitler's Panzers their path as they overran Europe.

 
 
   
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It is true that the Bolivians considered purchasing Hawk I's but abandoned the idea preferring instead to purchase the Vickers Type 143 "Bolivian Scout". It was only as the Gran Chaco war was already raging that the Bolivians once again became interested in Curtiss fighters. Initially they purchased four Hawk II's which were delivered in early 1933 just in time for the first of the freshly assembled Hawks to be flung into the desperate fighting during the battle of Nawana.

 

 
 
   
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Due to the arms embargo that began to gather momentum in May of 1933 the delivery dates of the Bolivian Hawk II's are somewhat confused. The embargo also drove the unit price of the Hawks to extortionate levels. A basic factory fresh Hawk II cost $12.900 if bought directly form Curtiss. This price had risen by nearly 100% by the time the aircraft were delivered since not only did the Curtiss agents in S-America take a juicy commission. They had to bribe the Hawks a path the entire way from the Curtiss Factory through whatever country happened to be in the mood to allow the shipment to pass at the moment and thence to the Bolivian border

 

 
 
   
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Nevertheless despite these difficulties and the resultant uncertainly about exact delivery dates. It is known that six Hawk II fighters were in service with the FAB by November 1933. Another two Hawks and a Sea Hawk II 4) amphibian, obtained through Chile, were eventually added to this number before the end of the war. This gives a total of eight Hawk II's and one Sea Hawk II.

 

 
 
 


Total production
: 129


Technical details Curtiss Hawk II
Type: Fighter
Crew: 1
Span: 9.60 m
Lenght: 8.08 m
Engine: Wright R-1820F3 / 710 hp
Max speed: 335 km/h at 2100 m
Range: 666 km
Armament: 2x0,3 in Browning machine guns in fuselage.
Underwing bomb racks.
 

 
 
 

 

   

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