Curtiss NC The Curtiss NC ( Curtiss Navy Curtiss , nicknamed " Nancy boat " or " Nancy " ) was a flying boat built by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and used by the United States Navy from 1918 through the early 1920s . Ten of these aircraft were built , the most famous of which is the NC - 4 , the first airplane to make a transatlantic flight . The NC - 4 is preserved in the National Museum of Naval Aviation , at NAS Pensacola , Florida . Development . Manufacture of the " NC " s began in 1918 during World War I . The U . S . Navy wished for an aircraft capable of long ocean flights , both for Anti - submarine warfare patrol , and if possible with capability to fly across the Atlantic Ocean under their own power to avoid having to be shipped through ocean waters menaced by German submarine s . This was a very ambitious undertaking , given the state of aviation at the time . The Navy and Curtiss came up with one of the largest biplane designs yet produced , equipped with sleeping quarters and a wireless transmitter / receiver . It was originally powered by three V12 Liberty engine s , of 400 hp ( 298 kW ) each ; during the testing phase Marc Mitscher recommended the addition of a fourth engine to help create enough power to lift the boats out of the water . The fourth engine was added to the midline in a pusher configuration . The maximum speed was 90 mph ( 144 km / h ) and the estimated maximum range was 1 , 500 mi ( 2 , 400 km ) . Called NC boats , with the " N " for Navy and " C " for the builder Curtis , they were nicknamed " Nancys " . NC - 1 and NC - 2 engine nacelle arrangements . As originally completed the NC - 1 had three tractor engines in nacelles located midway between the mainplanes , the centre nacelle housing the cockpit for two pilots . Due to a lack of power the centre nacelle was raised , elongated forwards and a pusher engine added . With this engine arrangement the pilots cockpit was moved to the hull in a more conventional position . NC - 2 differed in having the centre engine , of its complenment of three , fitted as a pusher , retaining the pilots cockpit in the centre nacelle . Also suffering from a lack of power , the NC - 2 was modified with four engines in tandem outer naelles , ( due to the outer nacelles being built closer to the centre nacelle , the three tractor / one pussher arrangement was impractical ) . Initially the centre cockpit nacelle was retaind but this was soon removed and a similar conventional cockpit to NC - 1 was added . NC - 3 onwards continued with the later NC - 1 arrangement of 3x tractor / 1x pusher engines and conventional cockpit in the hull . Operational history . On 4 October 1918 , the first of these aircraft , the NC - 1 , made its first test flight with the early three - engine configuration . On 25 November , it flew again , with a world record 51 people on board . Armistice Day , signaling the end of the war in Europe , came before testing of the first NC and construction of the other three of the Navy ' s initial order had been completed . The NC - 2 suffered damage during the testing phase and was cannibalized for spare parts . The other three NCs , NC - 1 , NC - 3 , and NC - 4 , set out on what was intended as the first demonstration of transatlantic flight , via Newfoundland and the Azores , on 8 May 1919 . As junior officer , Mitscher , who had been alotted to one of the commands , lost his command when NC - 2 had to be broken up for parts . He went on the flight as one of the pilots of the NC - 1 . The group met heavy fog off the Azores , making flight in the crudely instrumented aircraft extremely dangerous . Without a visible horizon it was extremely difficult to keep the aircraft in level flight . NC - 1 tried different altitudes and soldiered on for several hours before eventually putting down just short of the Azores and was damaged beyond repair in the rough seas . Only the NC - 4 made it through . The crew of NC - 1 was rescued at sea . Attempts to tow the aircraft to the Azores failed . NC - 3 was forced to land some 205 mi ( 330 km ) distance from the Azores , but the crew , led by Commander John Henry Towers , managed to sail her to Ponta Delgada unaided . The Navy had two more sets of NCs constructed , numbered NC - 5 to NC - 8 , and NC - 9 and NC - 10 , up to 1921 .