09/30/2011. The Stearman Aircraft Division of Boeing Airplane Company in Wichita, Kansas, designed the Model X-85 observation plane in response to a 1937 USN specification for an observation-scout type aircraft, capable of operating from either water or land, that could be catapulted from battleships and cruisers. Three companies received contracts for prototype construction, all three flew in 1938: the Naval Aircraft Factory biplane as XOSN-1 (BuNo. 0385), the Stearman biplane as XOSS-1 (BuNo. 1052) and the Chance Vought monoplane as XOS2U-1 (BuNo. 0951).
The Stearman Model X-85 XOSS-1 was a conventional two-seater, with an enclosed cockpit seating the pilot and observer in tandem and could be flown with a conventional taildragger landing gear, or with a single-float with wing outriggers as shown above. It was powered by a 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340-36 nine-cylinder, air-cooled radial engine and featured full-span flaps on the upper wing.
After the first flight in September 1938 and subsequent factory trials, the USN evaluated the XOSS-1 against the XOSN-1 and the XOS2U-1, the latter was declared winner in May 1939 and the the 1,218 produced examples became known as the Vought Kingfisher. The Stearman XOSS-1 was used as a liaison aircraft by the USN untill it was scrapped at NAS Jacksonville, Florida in 1941.
