title: Brown B-3
text: # Brown B-3
  
  The Brown B-3 was a 1930s American single-seat touring monoplane and air racer built by the Lawrence Brown Aircraft Company. Only one aircraft was built.
  
  ## Design and development
  
  The B-3 was based on earlier B-2 Miss Los Angeles single-seat racing monoplane. For the day, some advanced features were included such as Handley Page leading edge slots and single-slotted ailerons and flaps on the wing trailing edge. The B-3 was powered by a 290-horsepower (219 kW) Menasco C6S-4 Super Buccaneer inline piston engine. A proposed two seat-variant, the Brown B-3 Super Sport had two seats in tandem under an enclosed cockpit. No orders were received, and the project died.
  
  ## Operational history
  
  Intended as a long-distance racer as well as a touring aircraft, only one Brown B-3 (NX266Y) was built and sold to Dr. Ross Sutherland from Los Angeles. On October 10, 1943, the aircraft was destroyed in a hangar fire at Van Nuys Airport, then known as the Metropolitan Airport.
  
  The Brown B-3 is featured in Flight for Freedom (1943) as the racing aircraft flown by the lead character. The B-3 is featured as a prototype fighter aircraft in Flight Lieutenant (1942) and crashes out of shot in the final scene. The B-3 can also be seen sitting on the ramp during the scene of Humphrey Bogart's famous goodbye in the film Casablanca (1942).
  
  ## Specifications
  
  Data from
  
  General characteristics
  
  * Crew: 1
  * Capacity: 1
  * Length: 25 ft 11 in (7.89 m)
  * Wingspan: 31 ft 11 in (9.72 m)
  * Height: 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
  * Wing area: 150.0 sq ft (13.94 $m^2)$
  * Empty weight: 1,850 lb (839 kg)
  * Max takeoff weight: 2,650 lb (1,202 kg)
  * Powerplant: 1 × Menasco C6S-4 Super Buccaneer inline piston engine, 290 hp (220 kW)
  * Propellers: 2-bladed Hamilton Standard
  
  Performance
  
  * Maximum speed: 205 mph (330 km/h, 178 kn)
  * Cruise speed: 190 mph (310 km/h, 170 kn)
  * Range: 600 mi (966 km, 522 nmi)
  * Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,486 m)
  * Rate of climb: 1,200 ft/min (6.1 m/s)
  