Curtiss JN Jenny

JN "Jenny"
Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, 1918
General information
TypeTrainer
ManufacturerCurtiss
Designer
Benjamin D. Thomas
Primary usersU.S. Army Air Service
Number built6,813
History
Introduction date1915
Retired1927
VariantsCurtiss N-9
Curtiss JN-6H
Curtiss Twin JN

The Curtiss JN "Jenny" is a series of biplanes built by the Glenn Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the US Army, the "Jenny" (the common nickname derived from "JN") continued after World War I as a civilian aircraft, becoming the "backbone of American postwar [civil] aviation".[1]

Thousands of surplus Jennys were sold at bargain prices to private owners in the years after the war, and became central to the barnstorming era that helped awaken the US to civil aviation through much of the 1920s.[2]

  1. ^ Auliard 2009, p. 44.
  2. ^ Rumerman, Judy. "The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003.