In 1917 the United States Navy ordered five scout aircraft from Curtiss, they were designated the GS for Gnome Scout, named for the French-built 1000NaN0 Gnome rotary engine used to power the aircraft. The GS was a biplane with a central float and a stabiliser float at each end of the lower wing. The Navy ordered an additional aircraft as a triplane, which was designated the GS-1 and the original aircraft was retrospectively designated the GS-2. Although they were delivered to the Navy in 1918 nothing further is known about the type, other than that the GS-1 was destroyed in a landing accident on 1 April 1918.