Curtiss P-3 Hawk

The Curtiss P-3 Hawk was a single-seat biplane fighter developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps in the late 1920s as a radial-engine member of the highly successful Hawk family. Where the P-1 Hawk used an inline Curtiss engine, the P-3 was fitted with an air-cooled Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial of about 450 horsepower, part of the Army's effort to evaluate the new generation of radial engines for pursuit work. The Army ordered five production P-3As in late 1927, with deliveries beginning in September 1928, in addition to experimental XP-3A prototypes.

The aircraft retained the clean, staggered single-bay biplane lines of the Hawk series and was armed with two synchronized .30-caliber machine guns firing through the propeller arc. Engine cooling and drag issues limited the type's performance, and only a small number were built, but the P-3 contributed to the Army's transition toward radial-powered fighters.