in late 1916, the curtiss aeroplane company produced a new twin-engined flying boat, which was smaller than both the current curtiss h-12 being built for britain's royal naval air service and the earlier curtiss h-4, with the new design given the factory designation model h-14, although its design was unrelated to earlier model h variants. the h-14 was a conventional unequal-span, unstaggered biplane, powered by two 100 hp (75 kw) pusher curtiss oxx engines mounted between the wings. an order for 16 was placed by the united states army before the prototype flew, but the prototype was disappointing and the us army cancelled its order for h-14s.