The design was eventually revealed to carry 4 x Curtiss V-4 engines of 250 horsepower each and all arranged in "puller" configuration. All told, the aircraft could reach speeds of 100 miles per hour out to a range of 675 miles and stay airborne for up to seven hours. Rate-of-climb was a respectable 400 feet-per-minute.
The first (and eventually only) Model T specimen emerged from the Curtiss facility in Buffalo, New York during July of 1916. Because Britain was already embroiled in World War 1 (1914-1918) it took an interest in this long-range over-water aircraft as a maritime patrol bomber and its Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) looked to secure twenty of the Curtiss flying boats. However, unfortunately for Curtiss, the required engines were not yet available by the time British interest had peaked so, to facilitate the sale, the aircraft was disassembled and shipped via boat to Britain where it would be reassembled and outfitted with 4 x French-originated Renault 12F V-12 water-cooled piston engines of 240 horsepower each, these driving four-bladed wooden propellers. In this form, the aircraft was stationed at RNAS Felixstowe during 1916. Before long, the engine fit was switched over to 4 x Rolls-Royce Eagle models and the aircraft was tested on its first-flight ever that year. However, the aircraft crashed landed and was written off as a complete loss and this prompted the RNAS to terminate the contract for the remaining nineteen Wanamakers and its story more-or-less ended there.
The British then took the idea behind the Curtiss design and evolved it into the Felixstowe "Fury" (detailed elsewhere on this site), another mammoth flying boat design of the period, with changes instituted to suit British military requirements (again for the maritime patrol bomber role). This aircraft, too, existed in only a single completed example and led a short operational life, first-flown in November of 1918 and retired as soon as August 1919.
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