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LOT 174

AN APPROXIMATELY 1:5 SCALE MODEL OF A 1911 CURTISS D-III 'HEADLESS' PUSHER BIPLANE,

Sold for US$8,825 inc. premium
Lot 174

Property from the Collection of Don C. Boulton

AN APPROXIMATELY 1:5 SCALE MODEL OF A 1911 CURTISS D-III 'HEADLESS' PUSHER BIPLANE,

AN APPROXIMATELY 1:5 SCALE MODEL OF A 1911 CURTISS D-III 'HEADLESS' PUSHER BIPLANE,

museum quality model, with dummy pilot, scale model engine, fully rigged struts, 8 foot wingspan.

Early model D-IIIs made in 1910 were fitted with a foreplane for pitch control, but this was dispensed with in 1911 when it was accidentally discovered to be unnecessary. The new version without the foreplane was known as the Headless Pusher. Like all Curtiss designs, the aircraft used ailerons, which first existed on a Curtiss-designed airframe, the 1908 June Bug (Curtiss 1) to control rolling in flight, thus avoiding use of the Wright brothers' patented wing warping technology. The Curtiss D-III was the first aircraft type to take off from the deck of a ship (USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910, near Hampton Roads, Virginia) and made the first landing aboard a ship (USS Pennsylvania) on January 18, 1911, near San Francisco, California.

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