The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-19
WERE BUILT TO CROSS

Washington, May 1S.-American naval seaplanes which have undertaken the | first flight across the Atlantic ocean ! were built especially for bombing German submarines and in initiating their de- l sign Rear Admiral David w. Taylor, chief of the bureau of construction and repair, had in mind the construction of ships capable of flying across the ocean I so as to avoid difficulties of delivery l during the war.
 i This was disclosed today by the Navy l Department, which made public the mem orandum sent by Admiral Taylor on Aug
 ust 25 1917, to Naval Constructor J. c. | Hunsacker.
 l Admiral Taylor after discussion of the problem with his assistants, directed the preparation of tentative plans to show l in preliminary way the size and n/'re
 of design of large flying boat to com bine the maximum of seaworthiness with sufficient endurance to fly across the At lantic to the anti-submarine operating
 bases in France and England and to
 be capable of carrying heavy depth charges and a large battery of machine guns covering every angle of fire. 1 It was anticipated that the boats would l be attacked in the air by enemy air I craft
 l Early in September Glenn H. Curtiss 1 Of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor cor | more and Henry Gleckler, came to wash l ington at the navy's invitation to discuss l the proposed designs and they cooper l ated with the navy throughout the Qe- l signing and building of the ships. A three-foot model of the design was made exactly to scale and tested by pr. A. F.. Zahm in the wind tunnel at the Wasn- l ington navy yard.
 BEGAN IN OCTOBER l Construction work began in October i and Commander H. c. Richardson, na- lval constructor, was directed to design | the hull of the boat. His design was Of novel form and construction, enbodylns directly information obtained from his successful seaplane pontoons. A series of models of hulls were made up and tested by Naval Constructors McEalee and Richardson in the towing basin al the Washington navy yard and the best of the series was adopted.
 The engine plant design was the work of the bureau of steam engineering and it was decided to install three liberty | motors. In December, 1917, a contract was made with the Curtiss company for building four of the boats, but separate parts of the crafts were made by num- ber of factories. The NC-1, the first of the boats was completed and gwen a l flight on October 4, 1918, and the trials i a ~S naval officials
 The month of November was spent in thoroughly trying out the NC-1 and many flights were made. After making varl- ous minor chances it was concluded that the maximum which could be obtained from three Liberty engines had been reached and that no further improve ments in performance could be expected until geared Liberty motors became avail able. It was apparent however, that the lflying part of the craft could sustain a l-rreater load if more power were avail l able! and it was decided to add fourth engine.
 The second boat was completed in March. 1919 and successfully flew with a total weight of 2S,000 pounds. The NC-a I and NC-4 were completed last month It had been intended to fly all four boats across the Atlantic, but an accident to the NC-1 led to the decision to place the wings of the NC-2 on her and thus
 only three vessels were left available for the start of the flight.