The What is it? Game (1 Viewer)

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That's him Token. :)

Scan0003.jpg
 
Oh I think I know this one...is it a Grumman Tigercat drone controller with a Grumman Bearcat canopy above and behind the cockpit?

That is a really good guess, and it does look very much like one of those cropped this close, however I think you would still see the antenna mast of the F7F-2D, even cropped this tight. Good guess, but not it.

T!
 
Since we still have no answer on this one, panning back a little further, showing more of the aircraft.

Exceptional piece of cropping Token. :thumbright:
I looked at many teardrop canopies but firmly believed it was a large radial fighter aircraft.....
 
curtiss seahawk

I was going to ask for the specific designation, vs just the name, but I did not specify that up front, so you got it. Specifically this is an SC-2 Seahawk, vs the much more common SC-1. The SC-1 had a very different canopy, the SC-2 (At least the first one, if not all 9 of them) had this bubble canopy and no tall antenna mast forward, although some of the SC-2's had a tall mast aft in about the same location this one has a short mast.

Curtiss_Model97D_SC2_BuNo119529_PAX_MD_23_Sep_1947.jpg


Over to you.

T!
 
I don't believe the Seahawk was ever built as a two seater in the traditional sense, certainly not in the picture above where closing the canopy would decapitate the guy in the back with the framing attached to the canopy frame. Though I do believe that all, or most versions, used space in the rear fuselage somewhere to house rescued personnel.

The confusion may come in because EDO designed a similar aircraft, that did come in proper single or dual seat versions.

All this I think I gleaned from the respective two Ginter Naval Fighters books.
 
Actually, the Curtiss SC-1 was a single-seat and the SC-2 was a two-seater.


The subject in the game's photograph is a SC-1 - this is a SC-2:View attachment 538330

SC1_Hawaii_1946.jpg


I am pretty sure that the above image you have called an SC-2 is instead a standard SC-1, in Hawaii, in 1946.

The subject of the photograph I posted as a query in the game is BuNo 119529, which is, I believe, an SC-2 ( NH 87993 Curtiss SC-2 (BU no. 119529) ). That should be the first SC-2 produced, after the XSC-1 which had a very similar canopy. That photo was taken at PAX in September of 1947, or at least the wet print copy I have is so labeled as well as the web link above. I have seen images of at least one, and probably two, other aircraft with the same bubble canopy (but other varied features) and in the BuNo spread of the SC-2. I have not managed to find images of all the SC-2's produced to see if they all have the bubble canopy or not.


Below is a picture of the next SC-2 in series, BuNo 119530, also at PAX. Note it has the blown bubble canopy also and the location f the antenna mast. I have seen images of this aircraft on a ship, I think it was on BB-63 in 1948 or 49, and it was equipped with the same canopy at that time.
SC2_BuNo_119530_PAX.jpg



The production SC-1 had a very different canopy from the bubble shown in the picture I posted. It has noticeable bows. This is how more than 500 of the SC-1's were equipped.
SC-1_on_ship.jpg


Curtiss_SC1.jpg



Of course, it is possible that the canopy in the pictures I posted as SC-2's were a mod done at PAX after production, I have no information on that, but if so it was done to more than one SC-2 and it was used this way in the fleet after that. Every confirmed (by BuNo) SC-2 picture I have seen has the bubble canopy, while the SC-1 had the bowed canopy as in the picture you posted and the two examples of SC-1 I posted above. Also, the antenna mast on the SC-1's was forward and tall, while the SC-2's were aft and port side, and some were shorter.

T!
 
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