The Brown B-3 was a 1930s American single-seat touring

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

and

air racer Air racing is a type of motorsport that involves airplanes or other types of aircraft that compete over a fixed course, with the winner either returning the shortest time, the one to complete it with the most points, or to come closest to a prev ...

built by the Lawrence Brown Aircraft Company. Only one aircraft was built.

Design and development

The B-3 was based on earlier B-2 ''Miss Los Angeles'' single-seat racing monoplane. For the day, some advanced features were included such as Handley Page leading edge slots and single-slotted ailerons and flaps on the wing trailing edge. The B-3 was powered by a 290-horsepower (219 kW) Menasco C6S-4 Super Buccaneer inline piston engine. A proposed two seat-variant, the Brown B-3 Super Sport had two seats in tandem under an enclosed cockpit. No orders were received, and the project died.

Operational history

Intended as a long-distance racer as well as a touring aircraft, only one Brown B-3 (NX266Y) was built and sold to Dr. Ross Sutherland from Los Angeles. On October 10, 1943, the aircraft was destroyed in a hangar fire at

Van Nuys Airport : ''For the United States Air Force use of the airport (1942–1990), see Van Nuys Air National Guard Base'' Van Nuys Airport is a public airport in the Van Nuys neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. The airport is operated by Los Angele ...

, then known as the Metropolitan Airport. The Brown B-3 is featured in ''

Flight for Freedom ''Flight for Freedom'' (also known as ''Stand to Die'') is a 1943 American drama film directed by Lothar Mendes and starring Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray and Herbert Marshall. Film historians and Earhart scholars consider ''Flight for Freedom ...

'' (1943) as the racing aircraft flown by the lead character. Santoir, Christian
"Review: 'Flight for Freedom'."
''Aeromovies''. Retrieved: September 26, 2017. The B-3 is featured as a prototype fighter aircraft in ''

Flight Lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the Indi ...

'' (1942) and crashes out of shot in the final scene. The B-3 can also be seen sitting on the ramp during the scene of Humphrey Bogart's famous goodbye in the film Casablanca (1942).

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985)''. London: Orbis Publishing, 1985. {{Brown Aircraft 1930s United States sport aircraft B-003 Single-engined tractor aircraft Racing aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1936