04/30/2007. Remarks by Jack
Mckillop: "Ordnance Engineering Corporation of Long Island,
New York had offered their Model D to the USAAS in late 1918. In
January 1919 the prototype was tested by Lieutenant Clarence B.
Coombs at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, and showed such an excellent
performance that 50 aircraft were ordered. However, the contract was
put out to tender; won by Curtiss the aircraft was redesigned
including overhanging, balanced ailerons (elephant ailerons) on the
upper wing. The first Curtis-Orenco Model D was tested at McCook
Field on August 26, 1921.
Orenco (Ordnance Engineering Corporation had adopted the acronym in
1919) developed the D into the D2. It had wings of unequal span with
elephant ailerons (visuable in photo 5901)
and used the same 300 hp Hispano-Suiza H eight-cylinder
liquid-cooled engine. The USAAS ordered three of these aircraft
designated PW-3 (pursuit-water cooled), s/n 64142 to 64144, in
FY 1921.
The D2 is believed to have achieved a speed of 165 mph (266 kmh)
during a test flight before delivery to the USAAS. Only one of these
aircraft, s/n 64142, was delivered to McCook Field, during 1921 and was assigned
McCook Field Number P-229 and was subjected to static and taxiing
tests during which the authorities decided the plane was not
airworthy. Subsequently it was never flown and was surveyed on
October 24, 1926. The other two were never delivered and soon Orenco
went out of business."
