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Thomas-Morse S-4C

Thomas-Morse S-4C 1918 (Original)
The Thomas-Morse S-4C biplane was designed by B. Douglas Thomas, who was also responsible for the Curtiss "Jenny" aircraft. The S-4C was certainly the best advanced trainer produced in the United States during World War I. Nearly 500 of these single seaters were produced, but they came too late to play a significant part in wartime activity. Such problems as they created stemmed more from the characteristics of the early rotary engine that powered them than from any airframe defects. It was its motor that caused the Thomas-Morse to be phased out of service in the very early 1920's. But before that occured these advanced trainers were a common sight at Rockwell Field here in San Diego where they were flown by both Army Air Service and the Naval Air Detachments of the Pacific Fleet. After they were phased out of military service a number of S-4C's had lengthy careers in films, as fake Nieuports in the flying epics of the early 1930's. This accounts for the survival of this original machine which was acquired from the "Wings and Wheels" Museum in Orlando, Florida, in December 1981. It is presently on loan to the Museum.

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