03/31/2013. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The Carrier Pigeon was developed at Garden City as the Curtiss entry in the 1925 US Post Office competition for a single-seat mailplane to be powered with the 400 hp Liberty 12 engine. The Post Office bought most of the prototypes entered, including the Curtiss. Ten improved models (c/n K-5015-2 to K-5015-11) were built for National Air Transport (NAT) after the government mail routes began to be turned over to private contractors in 1926.

Wings were wooden framed, with welded steel-tube fuselage and aluminum frame tail. The most unusual design feature was the interchangeability of upper and lower wings. With no center section and the lower wings separated by the fuselage, the lower wing had greater span. Ailerons, rudder, and elevators were also interchangeable as were the fin and tail plane. Airfoil was the thick USA-27.

No license numbers were assigned to the Carrier Pigeons when they were built, but the prototype (c/n K-5015-1) was given Post Office Fleet Number 602. This was registered C27 after sale to NAT, and those built for NAT were registered C28 to C37 when licensing was adopted in 1927. C30 was reregistered NR9344 and C35 became NR35Y."

Span: 41 ft 11 in (12.77 m)
Length: 28 ft 9.5 in (8.77 m)
Height: 12 ft 1 in (3.68 m)
Wing area: 505 sq.ft (46.91 sq.m)
Empty weight: 3,603 lb (1,634 kg)
Payload: 1,000 lb (454 kg)
Gross weight: 5,620 lb (2,549 kg)
Max speed: 125 mph (201 kmh)
Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 kmh)
Climb: 800 ft (244 m)/min
Service ceiling: 12,800 ft (3,901 m)
Range: 525 mls (845 km)