It was a single-seater biplane with a monocoque fuselage and staggered single-bay wings of unequal span braced with I-struts.

(FAI Record File Number 8753) The second aircraft was sold shortly thereafter to the US Army for the token sum of $1.

The Army designated it the R-8 and intended to race the aircraft against the Navy in the 1924 Pulitzer Trophy Race in Fairfield, Ohio, but it was destroyed in a crash during training shortly before the competition killing the pilot, First Lieutenant Alexander Pearson, Jr.[2] The remaining R2C had its wheeled undercarriage replaced by pontoons during 1924 in preparation for that year's Schneider Trophy race, but the event was cancelled due to a lack of competitors.

As it was, the aircraft won that year's Pulitzer Trophy in the seaplane class with an average speed of 227.5 mph (366.1 km/h).

The aircraft ended its days training pilots for the 1925 and 1926 Schneider Trophy races.