The Wright Model G Aeroboat was a flying boat built in small numbers by the Wright Company in 1913. It represented an unsuccessful attempt by Wright to compete with the ubiquitous Curtiss Model F.Hallion 2019, p.69Roach 2015, p.107 One example was evaluated for U.S. Navy service,Taylor 1992, p.898The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft 1985, p.3098 and allocated a naval serial number, but this did not lead to a production order. The Model G was the first aircraft to be fitted with a T-tail.Hallion 2019, p.68
Design The Model G was a three-bay unstaggered biplane flying boat with equal-span wings.The 60 H.P. Wright Aero-Boat 1914, p.57 The pilot and a single passenger sat side-by-side in an open cockpit in the hull.The 60 H.P. Wright Aero-Boat 1914, p.56 A piston engine was mounted behind the cockpit, in the interplane gap, which powered two two-bladed pusher propellers via chain drives. Small stabilizer floats were mounted under the wings, initially at mid-span, but later moved to the wingtips. The horizontal stabilizer was originally mounted in a cruciform position on the fins, but later moved above them to create the first T-tail fitted to an aircraft. The Model G was originally fitted with a system of control levers, similar to earlier Wright designs, but the last ones built had control wheels that were emerging as the standard for aircraft control. The hull was built of metal.
Development The Wright Company had previously marketed seaplanes in the form of the Wright Model C-H floatplane. However, this machine's performance both in the air and on the water had proved disappointing. At the same time, rival firm Curtiss had achieved considerable success with their Model F flying boat. After an informal expression of interest from the U.S. Navy in evaluating a Wright flying boat, Orville Wright set designer Grover Loening to the task of designing the aircraft. It flew for the first time in 1913, and was test-flown by Orville, Loening, and Oscar Brindley on the Great Miami River.Roach 2015, p.106
Other than naval use, the Wright Company marketed it for recreational flying, and also hoped to sell it as a mailplane for use in Alaska and coastal areas.
Development of the design continued as the Wright Model H and Model HS.Roach 2015, p.109
Operational history The U.S. Navy purchased the first Model G builtRoach 2015, p.108 and assigned it the serial AH-19.Swanborough & Bowers 1990, p.536 It was tested for the Navy by Harry Atwood on Lake Erie in May 1914, and then by Lt. Harry Maxfield. Maxfield advised against purchasing the type, and no further interest by the Navy ensued.
Wright sold at least two other Model Gs: one to Atwood, and another to Ernie Hall. Captain J. William Hazelton of the New York National Guard also owned a "Wright-type flying boat" around this time, which might have been a Model G. He offered it to the Army for use in support of the Mexican Revolution, but the offer was not taken up.
On August 20, 1914, Orville Wright and passenger Lt. Kenneth Whiting narrowly escaped drowning when a Model G piloted by Wright crashed into the Great Miami River after one of its wings failed in flight.
Operators United States Navy
Specifications
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