The L-W-F Model H Owl was a large American

twin-boom A twin-boom aircraft has two longitudinal auxiliary spars, or “auxiliary booms” , that may contain ancillary components such as fuel tanks and/or provide a supporting structure for other items. Typically, twin tailbooms support the tail ...

trimotor A trimotor is a propeller-driven aircraft powered by three internal combustion engines, characteristically one on the nose and one on each wing. A compromise between complexity and safety, such a configuration was typically a result of the limit ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

designed and built by LWF Engineering as a

mail plane The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

in 1920, but after being rejected for that role, the single prototype was sold to the

United States Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warf ...

for evaluation as a bomber but failed to secure any orders.

Design and development

It had a center

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a streamlined container for aircraft parts such as Aircraft engine, engines, fuel or equipment. When attached entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached with a Hardpoint#Pylon, pylo ...

with room for three crew members suspended on struts between the wings and flanked on either side by similarly braced tail booms. All three fuselages had a

Liberty L-12 The Liberty L-12 is an American Water_cooling#Internal_combustion_engines, water-cooled 45° V12 engine, V-12 engine, displacing and making , designed for a high power-to-weight ratio and ease of mass production. It was designed principally as ...

engine in the nose, and were fabricated from laminated wood in the same manner as had been used in prior LWF

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

designs, with three thin layers of wood laid at an angle to each other and separated with fabric. The four bay biplane wings were fitted with

ailerons An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

on both upper and lower wings. It had a biplane horizontal stabilizer with three rudders, and ailerons on all four wings. No fin was provided for the center rudder. All controls were given generous aerodynamic counterbalances to reduce control forces. The initial six-wheel undercarriage was later modified to four-wheels, and the radiator for the center engine was moved from in front of the pilot to between the engine and the propeller.

Operational history

The Owl was first flown by Ernest Harmon from

Mitchel Field Mitchell may refer to: People and fictional characters *Mitchell (surname), including lists of both people and fictional characters *Mitchell (given name), lists of people and fictional characters Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Ca ...

, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, New York, on 22 May 1920. Although built for night air mail service (hence being named Owl), it failed to interest the Post Office. Between 1921 and 1922, the United States Army Air Service evaluated it as a bomber at Langley Field in VirginiaSpearman, 1985, p.5 when it was allocated Army Air Service serial number ''64012'', however its performance was described as “adequate but not impressive.” General Billy Mitchell planned to evaluate the design during the bombing tests to sink the and the in September 1923, but it does not appear that this actually occurred.Maurer, 2004, pp.124-126 The sole prototype was scrapped in 1923. Two prototypes of the XNBS-2, a scaled-down twin-engine derivative of the Owl, were ordered in 1923, but this order was cancelled before construction began.

Variants

;Model H Owl: biplane mailplane/bomber, one built. ;NBS-2: Scaled down twin-engined version. Order for two cancelled and none built.

Operators

Specifications (model H Owl)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{LWF aircraft L-W-F aircraft 1920s United States bomber aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1920 Trimotors