Wright Model K
The Wright Model K was a prototype floatplane built by the Wright Company in 1914 and sold to the U.S. Navy. Its layout was generally similar to the Wright Model F: a typical Wright-style wing cellule and powerplant installation combined with a more modern fuselage design.
The Model K was the first Wright design to use ailerons instead of wing warping, and the first to feature tractor propellers. It was also the last Wright design to feature the wing and engine configuration that had been used on every Wright aircraft from Flyer I onwards, and the last sale by the company to the U.S. military.
Design
The Model K was a three-bay unstaggered biplane with equal-span wings.The pilot and observer sat in tandem in open cockpits. A piston engine was mounted in the nose, which powered two two-bladed propellers via chain drives. Unlike previous Wright designs, these propellers were mounted tractor-fashion, and higher in the interplane gap. The empennage was arranged as a conventional tail, with an almost circular fin and rudder. The Model K was equipped with two long, pontoon-style floats.
Development
In March 1915, the U.S. Navy invited submissions from fourteen aircraft manufacturers, including Wright, for nine seaplanes. The specifications required by the Navy included that propellers be mounted tractor-wise, and that ailerons be used for directional control. Both of these were a departure from the way Wright had been building aircraft, but the Model K incorporated these features.
Operational history
The U.S. Navy purchased the prototype Model K and assigned it the serial AH-23. No order for further production resulted, and this, the only Model K ever built, was removed from service in February 1917.
Operators