Curtiss P-6E Hawk Biplane with Bomb Drop at Warbirds Over Whatcom

This was one of my favorite flights of the day at Warbirds Over Whatcom in Ferndale, Washington. This shows a very fast biplane ripping through the skies performing tricks and even dropping a bomb! I never knew a biplane could be used as a bomber. That bomb drop taught me a lot actually.Show more

I was told that this plane was a P-6E Hawk Boeing Biplane at the event. However, it seems that it is actually a Curtiss P-6E Hawk Biplane made by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, not Boeing. Regardless, this is one cool looking and flying little bipe! The best part was that the entire flight was flawless from take-off to landing with no crashes. The take-off was so smooth that I actually missed it!

The Plane's History:

he Curtiss P-6 Hawk was an American single-engine biplane fighter introduced into service in the late 1920s with United States Army Air Corps and operated until the late 1930s prior to the outbreak of World War II.

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (which became the Curtis-Wright Corporation (15 July 1929) supplied the USAAC with P-6s beginning in 1929.

A single P-6E survives. The aircraft was donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum by Mr. Edward S. Perkins of Anniston, Alabama and restored by the School of Aeronautics at Purdue University. It is on indefinite loan and display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. Originally s/n 32-261 and assigned to the 33rd Pursuit Squadron, it was dropped from records at Tampa Field, Florida, in September 1939. It was restored and marked as 32-240 of 17th Pursuit Squadron, missing on a flight over Lake Erie on 24 September 1932.

At the event there were the following planes: S.E.5, A-1 Skyraider, P-47 Thunderbolt, Spitfire, BF-109, FW-190, Albatros D.Va, P-51 Mustang, B-17, Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Camel, and Neiuport 28