2-840-009 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Single-engine, two-seat, U.S.-built World War I trainer aircraft; 90-horsepower Curtiss OX-5 engine. Tan wings, brown and blue fuselage. The Curtiss JN-4D is almost synonymous with American aviation in the 1920s. The Jenny, as it was affectionately called, appeared in 1917. Heretofore having only produced pusher aircraft, Glenn Curtiss hired an experienced European designer to lead the new project named B. Douglas Thomas, who had worked for Avro and Sopwith in England. The Jenny performed admirably as a trainer for the U.S. Air Service during World War I, but its more significant role in aviation history was as a barnstorming and mail-carrying airplane in the 1920s. Large numbers of relatively inexpensive war surplus Jennys were available in the United States after 1918. Its affordability, ease of operation, and versatility made the Jenny the signature airplane of the barnstorming era. The Smithsonian acquired this Jenny in 1918 directly from the U.S. War Department. It is one of the finest remaining examples of this truly classic airplane.