NAS Pensacola ...

[The Inspector]

Tsk Tsk Tsk, thats not a -1 N3N.

Good morning Jeff, you mean the N3N-1 on floats is not a -1? ... Looks like a -1 on the tail. Embellish please!

Baughers Naval aircraft lists show it as an N-3-N-1 s/n 0089 involved in a double fatal @ Pensacola 9/24/41

[N3Njeff]

Tsk Tsk Tsk, thats not a -1 N3N.

Good morning Jeff, you mean the N3N-1 on floats is not a -1? ... Looks like a -1 on the tail. Embellish please!

The N3N had problems with always being tail heavy. Over 100 -1's were made and all the while the NAF made changes to try and correct the tail issue. One was even using a longer engine mount to adjust the CG. Being that the N3N was tail heavy, it also had spin problems. The N had a tendency to go flat and not recover.
Note the location of the horizontal on the -1



So a drastic change was attempted by modifying one airplane with a new tail. The airplane was 0265 and would be called the XN3N-2. The change would be to raise the horizontal in relation to the lower wing.



This picture surfaced in the TimeLife series not long ago and I had to look at it six times before I noticed that it was the -2 tail.

Here is the final version and #1759 as the first -3 airplane.

[N3Njeff]

You know I got to hit the books again on this....................That -1 has the raised horizontal but the vertical is different than 0265. Its looking like this is a oddball -1

[N3Njeff]

Here is a pic of one of the last -1's made.