Curtiss NC-4 Flying Boat

Sierra embedded blanks with cloth wing material from the Curtiss NC-4 Flying Boat. All blanks will come with one COA per blank. COAs are 4" x 6" card stock with foil COA seal. The NC-4 was a Curtiss NC flying boat built in 1917. It was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The NC designation was derived from the collaborative efforts of the Navy and Curtiss. The NC series flying boats were designed to meet wartime needs, and after the end of World War I they were sent overseas to validate the design concept. The aircraft was designed by Glenn Curtiss and his team, and manufactured by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, with the hull built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Corporation in Bristol, Rhode Island. In May 1919, a crew of United States Navy aviators flew the NC-4 from New York State to Lisbon, Portugal, over the course of 19 days. This included time for stops of numerous repairs and for crewmen's rest, with stops along the way in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and twice in the Azores Islands. Then its flight from the Azores to Lisbon completed the first transatlantic flight between North America and Europe, and two more flights from Lisbon to northwestern Spain to Plymouth, England, completed the first flight between North America and Great Britain. The transatlantic capability of the NC-4 was the result of developments in aviation that began before World War I. In 1908, Glenn Curtiss had experimented unsuccessfully with floats on the airframe of an early June Bug craft, but his first successful takeoff from water was not carried out until 1911, with an A-1 airplane fitted with a central pontoon. After World War I ended, Curtis and the Navy had built a set of four identical aircraft, the NC-1, NC-2, NC-3 and the NC-4, the U.S. Navy's first series of four Curtiss NC floatplanes made for the Navy by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. The NC-4 made its first test flight on 30 April 1919. These blanks are made from original wing fabric from the Curtis NC-4 Flying Boat. The NC-4 is property of the Smithsonian Institution, since it was given to that institution by the Navy after it was dissembled and returned home from its transatlantic flight. As of 1974, the reassembled NC-4 is on loan from the Smithsonian to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. The material is certified and distributed by Hardin Penworks, LLC. This material is guaranteed to be 100% Authentic.