The Great Depression put great stress on the U.S. aircraft industry. Many firms closed and others had to merge, even Consolidated was consolidated. Boeing and Curtiss were no different and conditions imposed a forced marriage of (in)convenience.
What is known today as corporate branding would of course be an ongoing concern.
Top priority was for the new firm to decide which designs should be kept and moved forward. The most important area was government contracts and Boeing was working on improvements to their P-26 monoplane.
The new BoeCurt company improved on the improvements by further refining the incredibly intimidating spatted landing gear that was the original Peashooter's hallmark.
In addition, the engine was upgraded to a new six-cylinder inverted inline of 670 h.p. While the hide-bound Army Air Corps rejected the design right off the drawing board, it was hoped a Navy contract could be procured so a prototype was constructed. Thus the BoeCurt XF1BC Sea Shooter was born.
A retractable tail hook was added and the air frame strengthened for carrier landings. The prototype fighter was very heavily armed for its day with with two synchronized .50 caliber machine guns mounted on the engine decking and one 14 mm (or in U.S. Navy parlance, a "quarter-pounder") cannon firing through the propeller hub. It was said a single burst could bring down a battleship, never mind that battleships can't fly.
Why any weapons at all would be needed is a mystery as the sheer intimidation factor of the spats alone should have been enough to sweep all enemies from the sky.
The U.S. Navy, on the other hand, was less than impressed. They were just barely accepting replacing the traditional spruce framing with steel tubes, let alone flying cantilever monoplanes with enclosed canopies and spats that would frighten the most seasoned old salt.
After much time, effort and money was spent, this would all come to naught. The Navy would never be satisfied with such a radical concept and one of the New Deal "Alphabet Soup" agencies would finally weigh in.
The fact that the brave U.S. eagle was armed with a clutch of pencils and a roll of red tape did not bode well. Eventually the NIAA and various other bureaucratic letter combinations would be declared incomprehensible after a suit was filed in the 4973rd U.S. Circuit Court. The BoeCurt company would again become its more recognizable component parts and the XF1BC Sea Shooter was shelved indefinitely.
Still, for one brief, shining moment, this revolutionary prototype would be a glimpse into the future of aircraft carrier aircraft.
Brian da Basher
