The 1920s and 30s was a period of rapid growth for United States naval aviation. Tactics were rapidly developing, leadership was considering (and dismissing) strategic possibilities with the airplane, and aircraft manufacturers were conceiving new ideas almost daily. The Fleet N2Y is at the apex of these ideas and demonstrates a physical representation of the exploratory attitude of America's military at the time. It is in this period, coinciding with the procurement of the N2Y, that the United States Navy developed two airborne fleet support platforms to act as aerial aircraft carriers. Resulting from a five year plan introduced by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the U.S.S Macon and U.S.S. Akron played a significant role in aviation's experimental boom, specifically within U.S. Navy circles.

Designed to act as fleet and coastal defense and to conduct reconnaissance, these two airborne aircraft carriers would hold the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawks which would be released underneath the gas bags in the event their firepower was needed to fend off potential fleet or coastal threats. Interestingly, the process of lowering and raising these fighter aircraft from an airship was accomplished via a trapeze method with a hook assembly built into the structure of the aircraft, and the trapeze assembly itself being lowered and raised into separate bays of the airship with the aircraft then attached. As one can very well imagine, the process of flying one's open cockpit biplane into the hooking assembly underneath an airship moving at a mere ten knots above one's stall speed can be a very arduous task requiring significant training. It is at this point where our neat little Fleet N2Y comes into play. If we grab this obscure naval aircraft by the scruff of its neck, we will see, behind its entanglement of wood and fabric, an indication of a broader way of thinking from U.S. naval leadership and the airborne state of mind.

The Fleet N2Y's beginnings originate from the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, a popular aircraft manufacturer that was famous for its rugged flying machines built for the U.S. military services, chiefly the Army and Navy. The N2Y's individual heritage can be traced back to the "Husky" series of training machines constructed by Consolidated, beginning with the NY-1 in the mid to late 1920s. The NY-1 was a Naval development of the PT-1 trainer for the U.S. Army with the principal difference between them being a change in engines; a water-cooled "vee-type" in the PT-1 and the Wright J-series in the NY-1, this change being founded on the U.S. Navy's reliance on air-cooled radial engines compared to the heavier water-cooled engines that were on many Army machines. Following the NY-1 "Husky" was the (get ready for it...) NY-2 "Husky", another bus in a line of increasingly yet slightly modified training airplanes for the United States military. After a few more successful trainers were introduced for the military, and the publicity of Jimmy Doolittle's success in "blind flying" a N.A.C.A NY-2 in 1929, Consolidated realized the potential of marketing their product to the civilian world and, rather experimentally, introduced the Husky Junior biplane onto the scene.

The Husky Junior, or Consolidated Model 14, was the brief precursor to the Fleet Model 1 which tore onto the civilian biplane market in 1929. Barnstormers and businessmen alike were interested in this durable, Scarab powered machine that outperformed many of it contemporary biplanes. Almost at the same time as the Model 1's release, the Model 2 was also introduced with the primary difference between them being the Model 2 was powered by a more reliable 5 cylinder Kinner radial engine compared to the Model 1's somewhat infamous Warner Scarab radial engine. It is at this time in 1929 that the United States Navy also took an interest in this popular biplane, considering it as a trainer for the eventual Sparrowhawk pilots. The Navy made its final decision in 1930, choosing the rugged Husky Junior platform to train its pilots in the art of aerial trapeze engagement when they purchased bureau numbers A8600-A8605 for the program. This decision proved to be a successful one, and the Fleet N2Y-1 trained many pilots and carried out exercises for the U.S.S. Akron and U.S.S. Macon before the airships met their eventual and unfortunate endings by crashing off each coast of the United States.

All of this has showed us that the Fleet Model 2, or N2Y, is an interesting little bird because of its versatility, toughness, and popularity among naval aviators and barnstormers alike. The Model 2 played a significant yet widely unknown part in the birth of America's naval air strength by training its pilots in the art of hooking their crate into a flying balloon, a skill labeled as unthinkable in today's aviation circles. When thinking of this neat airplane, we should think of the trust its pilot emplaced in it due to its remarkably desirable flying characteristics and reliability in almost all situations a pilot could place themselves and their flying machine in. Not only this, but how the unassuming N2Y helped construct the U.S. Navy's aerial mindset at a time when aviation experimentation was on a global rise.

Resources:
-Goodspeed, M. Hill. National Museum of Naval Aviation - The Aircraft Collection. Naval Aviation Musuem Foundation, 2002.
-Juptner, Joseph P. U.S. Civil Aircraft Series. Vol. 1. 9 vols. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: TAB Books, 1993.
-Juptner, Joseph P. U.S. Civil Aircraft Series. Vol. 2. 9 vols. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: TAB Books, 1993.
-L., Evans, Mark, and Grossnick, Roy A. United States Naval Aviation 1910-2010. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Naval History and Heritage Command, 2015.
-L., Evans, Mark, and Grossnick, Roy A. United States Naval Aviation 1910-2010. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Naval History and Heritage Command, 2015.
-Naval History and Heritage Command. National Naval Aviation Museum, n.d. https://www.history.navy.mil/
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The Fleet N2Y and it's Unique Purpose

The Fleet N2Y and it's Unique Purpose

By: Carson Hawkins