Curtiss Falcon The Curtiss Falcon is a family of military biplane aircraft built by the United States aircraft manufacturer Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company during the 1920s . Most saw service as part of the United States Army Air Corps as observation aircraft with the designations O - 1 and O - 11 , or as the attack aircraft designated the A - 3 Falcon . U . S . Navy variants were used initially as fighter - bombers with the designation F8C Falcon , then as the first U . S . Marine Corps dive bomber s with the name Helldiver . Two later generations of Curtiss dive - bombers would also be named Helldiver . The type was introduced in 1925 and saw first - line service in the United States until 1934 . Curtiss Falcons fought in the Constitutional Revolution of 1932 in Brazil , used by the forces of São Paulo . Design and development . The Falcon XO - 1 prototype was evaluated by the USAAC along with eleven other prototypes in 1924 and the Douglas XO - 2 was declared the winner of that competition . So Curtiss re - engined the prototype with the Packard 1A - 1500 for the 1925 trials , which it won . The engine failed to live up to expectations and the O - 1 ordered by the Army was fitted with the 435 hp ( 324 kW ) Curtiss V - 1150 ( D - 12 ) engine . The aircraft was a conventional unequal - span biplane design with wooden wings , while the fuselage was built using aluminum tubing with steel tie - rod bracing . The landing gear was fixed and the tail included a balanced rudder with a rear skid originally , later changed to a tailwheel . The initial A - 3 Falcon order was placed in the winter of 1927 and delivery of the first plane was in October 1927 . A total of 76 A - 3s were received . Later , six aircraft were modified as pilot trainers with dual controls and redesignated A - 3A . A second batch of 78 improved A - 3Bs , based on the Curtiss O - 1E , were purchased beginning in 1929 . Operational history . Reasonably successful as an observation aircraft , Falcons flew primarily in the 1st , 5th and 99th Observation Squadrons of the 9th Observation Group , Mitchel Field , New York . The A - 3 Attack Falcon saw considerable use , in front - line service with the 8th , 13th and 19th Attack Squadrons of the 3rd Attack Group , Barksdale Field , Louisiana , and the 26th Attack Squadron in Hawaii from 1928 to 1934 and with reserve units until 1937 . The U . S . Navy introduced the F8C - 1 and F8C - 3 Falcon as a shipboard fighter in 1927 - 1928 . They were later redesignated OC - 1 and OC - 2 for Marine Corps use as an observation / bomber . The F8C - 4 Helldiver variant initially saw service with the Navy , and the first production batch of 25 was transferred in 1931 to the Marine Corps . A total of 34 F8Cs redesignated as O2C - 1 observation aircraft were also transferred to the Naval Reserve in 1931 , serving with squadrons VN - 10RD9 , VN - 11RD9 , and VN - 12RD9 . Most of the 63 newer F8C - 5 / O2C - 1 Helldivers also served with the Marines , remaining in service until 1936 . The type was featured in a number of Hollywood films : " Flight " ( 1929 ) , " Hell Divers " ( 1932 ) and " King Kong " ( 1933 ) . Curtiss Falcon aircraft fought during the Brazil Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 , under the flag of São Paulo . In Bolivia , the aircraft type also fought in the Chaco War ( 1932 – 1935 ) , bombing Paraguayan troopers . The Colombian Air Force used Falcon F - 8 and O - 1 in the Colombia - Peru War in 1932 - 3 .