Mystery Plane...any guesses?

[akradecki]

Ok, need some help with this one. What is it? Note the appearance of corrugations on the aft belly and empennage.

One person at work told me it that Curtiss experimented with monoplane designs with their Model 34 and 35 Hawks, but nothing online that I can find corroborates this, and I've found two places that talk about one of Curtiss' low-wing monoplanes as being their first such aircraft, and these came after the model 34/35.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Whoever comes up with corroboratable answer gets a shout-out on the Vintage Air blog. BTW, date on the photo is about 1934 or '35, but I'm guessing the plane is earlier.

[rammsteinmatt]

dang i thought i had found it (thats why im posting, cause i was excited i had found it in 2 mins on google)...  planform is off (and its probably of the wrong nationality)...

morane saulnier 35
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/aircraft-pictures/164034d1301904634t-romanian-air-force-iar-morane-saulnier-35.jpg

still looking, will keep posted...

[akradecki]

What intrigues me, as well, is that the mystery plane has an inline, rather than the more common radial engine. Lower frontal drag, lower drag because it doesn't have a second wing...this thing must have been fast!

AR

[Josh]

Ok, need some help with this one. What is it? Note the appearance of corrugations on the aft belly and empennage.

One person at work told me it that Curtiss experimented with monoplane designs with their Model 34 and 35 Hawks, but nothing online that I can find corroborates this, and I've found two places that talk about one of Curtiss' low-wing monoplanes as being their first such aircraft, and these came after the model 34/35.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Whoever comes up with corroboratable answer gets a shout-out on the Vintage Air blog. BTW, date on the photo is about 1934 or '35, but I'm guessing the plane is earlier.

It's a Douglas YO-31.

She has a Curtiss V-1570 engine, and as far as I know there was only one in this configuration built in the series of the O-31's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_O-31

and http://www.aero-web.org/specs/douglas/yo-31.htm has her Designation Period as 1924-1942. Tho she wasn't built until in or after 1930.

The first time I saw one of these I thought it was a Curtiss or a frikker cause of her gull-wing and engine config.

[akradecki]

That's awesome, thanks Josh!

What I also find interesting is that the first and third photos that you posted look like they were taken at the same place, but at a different time of day (or just different day) as the one that I posted. I have a shot of a DC-2 with the same background. Santa Monica maybe?

Alan

[Josh]

That's awesome, thanks Josh!

What I also find interesting is that the first and third photos that you posted look like they were taken at the same place, but at a different time of day (or just different day) as the one that I posted. I have a shot of a DC-2 with the same background. Santa Monica maybe?

Alan

I noticed the same thing. What I do know is that those photos I posted came from the San Diego Air and Space Museum archive. They might be able to tell you. It would make sense for it being at Santa Monica however I don't know what the procedure for military experiments were back then. In the photos, she is already in AAC colors.

[evangilder]

Is it just me, or does the back half of the airplane looks like it's made of wicker?

[akradecki]

It's just the moire pattern that results from the lines of the corrugated skin being scanned at low resolution.

Alan

[akradecki]

Hey Josh, the photo that you helped ID is now up as this week's feature, http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com/2011/10/gull-wing-douglas.html

Many thanks for your expertise!

Alan

[bigredlancer]

The middle-late1930s were full of Army observation aircraft. Was there a new policy of air observation support for artillery?

[Josh]

The middle-late1930s were full of Army observation aircraft. Was there a new policy of air observation support for artillery?

Good question.