Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk

The Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk was a tiny biplane fighter designed to be carried aboard the U.S. Navy's giant rigid airships USS Akron and USS Macon. Each airship served as a flying aircraft carrier, launching and recovering its Sparrowhawks in flight using a trapeze hook mounted above the fighter's upper wing. The aircraft would fly up to the airship, engage the trapeze, and be hauled inside the hull for storage. Operated during the early 1930s, the Sparrowhawks extended the scouting range of the airships far beyond what their own crews could observe.

Only a handful were built, and the program ended when Macon was lost in 1935. Compact and nimble, the Sparrowhawk remains one of the most distinctive experiments in naval aviation history, embodying the brief era of the airship-borne parasite fighter.