usarmyairservice

This is a photo of the would-be US Army Air Service Round The World Flight aviators. First row, sitting, from left to right, Erik H. Nelson, Frederick Martin, and Lowell H. Smith. Second row, standing, from left to right, Laclair D. Schulze, Leigh Wade, Leslie Arnold, and Jack Harding. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_circumnavigation Schulze (1891-1927) was an alternate for the flight. His name is frequently misspelled as "Le Clair D. Schulze." On August 2, 1927, he'd perish flight testing a new Curtiss engine. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. See: www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ldschulze.htm Frederick Martin (1882-1954) was the commander for the expedition, but his aircraft would crash onto the side of a mountain in the Aleutians. Both he and co-pilot/mechanic Alva Harvey would survive the crash, and hike down to a cannery after a 10-day ordeal. Martin would go on to have a military career of note. In fact, he would be the commander of US Army Air Forces in Hawaii during the Imperial Japanese Navy's (IJN) sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Martin_(general)

See www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/curtiss-r-6-racer/ which has a copy of the same photo, attributed to the U.S. Air Force and identified as a Curtiss R-6 Racer. See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_CR

This is Curtiss R-6, Air Service serial number A.S. 68583 (McCook Field project number P-279). This particular aircraft (marked as Race No. 44), piloted by Lt. Lester Maitland (who also appears in the LoC's Bain collection), would finish second in the 1922 National Air Race. First place would be won by Russell Maughan, piloting the other Curtiss R-6 (A.S. 68584; marked Race No. 43). See photo below: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/51240958834/ The aircraft in the background, on the left side of the frame, A.S. 22563, is a Standard J-1 biplane belonging to the Army Air Service.

It is the Sperry-Verville R.3 racer, as seen on this also front on picture of the machine. Dating from 1923 it had wheels that could retract, or as they named it at the time 'were foldable'. Underneath the fuselage are two Lamblin radiators for the water-cooled engine. This picture is in the collection of the SDASM :