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CURTISS BF2C GOSHAWK
Design & Development

The United States Navy and Curtiss felt the F11C-2 possessed development potential. The Navy decided to procure a variant with retractable landing gear. This variant, which still had the F11C-2's classic "Hawk" wood wing with its flat-bottomed Clark Y airfoil, was designated XF11C-3 by the Navy and Model 67 by Curtiss. The gear retraction system was inspired by the Grumman XFF-1 prototype, and was manually operated.

The XF11C-3 was delivered to the USN in May 1933, with a Wright R-1820-80 radial engine rated at 700 hp (520 kW). Trials revealed a 17 mph (27 km/h) increase in speed over the F11C-2, but the extra weight caused a decrease in maneuverability. The Navy felt the handling degradation was more than offset by the increase in speed. During testing the XF11C-3 had its wood wing replaced by the metal-structured, biconvex, NACA 2212 airfoil wing used in production and soon after was redesignated XBF2C-1 (Model 67A) in keeping with the new Bomber-Fighter category.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Curtiss BF2C Goshawk
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