While theVought VE-7s were serving the Navy well in the early 1920s, they were not originally designed as fighters. TheNaval Aircraft Factory came up with a simple design driven by a 200 hp (150 kW)Lawrance J-1 air-cooledradial engine. Its boxyfuselage was suspended between the upper and lower wings (essentially having both dorsaland ventral sets ofcabane struts), with the center area of the lower wing enlarged to accommodate a fuel tank.[2]
The NAF providedCurtiss with the plans to build the aircraft, and the result, designatedTS-1, arrived atAnacostia on May 9, 1922. The TS-1 from Curtiss was delivered withwheels, so the NAF also designed wooden floats to enable their use on vessels other thanaircraft carriers. Testing went well, and in late 1922 the Navy ordered 34 planes from Curtiss, with the first arriving on board the aircraft carrierUSS Langley in December. The NAF built another five themselves, as a test of relative costs, as well as four more used to experiment with water-cooledinline engines.[2]
Two all-metal versions of the aircraft, F4C-1s, were developed by Curtiss. This aircraft made its first flight on September 4, 1924. The wings had tubular spars and stampedduraluminum ribs, and the fuselage was constructed of duraluminum tubing in a Warren truss form. Compared to the TS-1, the lower wing was raised to the base of the fuselage. The F4C-1 was armed with two .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns and was powered by a 200 hp nine-cylinder Wright J-3 radial.
In addition to operating from the carrier deck, the TS-1s served for several years in floatplane configuration aboarddestroyers,cruisers, andbattleships. The aircraft were slung over the side bycrane or launched from capital ship catapults. SquadronVO-1 operated this way from 1922, andVF-1 flew its float-equipped TS-1s from battleships in 1925 and 1926.[3]
The TS-1 was not universally liked by its crews. Positioning of the lower wing below the fuselage resulted in short wheel struts. This, and the wheels' placement close to each other, caused considerable problems withground looping.[4]
^Johnson, E.R.,United States Naval Aviation, 1919-1941: Aircraft, Airships and Ships Between the Wars; McFarland, 2011;ISBN078648585X, 9780786485857
^abLloyd S. Jones,U.S. Naval Fighters (Fallbrook CA: Aero Publishers, 1977,ISBN0-8168-9254-7), pp. 14-17
^abcdefg"United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911" by Gordon Swanborough & Peter M. Bowers (Naval Institute Press Annapolis, MD,ISBN0-87021-968-5) 1976, 546 pp.
^"The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Directory of Airplanes their Designers and Manufacturers" ed. Dana Bell,ISBN1-85367-490-7, 2002, page 88
^"Curtiss (NAF) TS-2/3".National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Archived fromthe original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved26 October 2019.
