North American NA-16
The North American Aviation NA-16 was the first trainer aircraft built by North American Aviation, Inc. and was the beginning of a line of closely related North American trainer aircraft that would eventually number more than 17,000 examples.
Design and development
The NA-16 was a family of related single engine, low-wing monoplanes with tandem seating.[1] Variants could have an open cockpit (the prototype) or be under a glass greenhouse that covered both cockpits.[1] On some variants, the rear of the canopy could be opened for a gunner to fire to the rear.[1] A variety of air cooled radial engines, including the Wright Whirlwind, Pratt & Whitney Wasp and Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior of varying horsepowers was installed depending on customer preferences.[1] The fuselage was built up from steel tubes and normally fabric covered however later versions were clad in aluminium.[1] All but the very last versions of the BT-9 were shorter by 6" than later versions, and the AT-6 series.[1] Again, many verions had a fixed landing gear, but later versions could have a retractable undercarriage, mounted in a wider wing center section.[1] Most had a straight trailing edge on the outer wing while again, some had the wing trailing edge swept forward slightly.[1] Several different rudders were used, with early examples having a round outline, intermediate examples having a square bottom on the rudder (Harvard I) and late examples using the triangular rudder of the AT-6 series.[1] Horizontal and vertical tails were initially covered in corrugated aluminum, but later examples were smooth skinned, and the horizontal stabilizer was increased in chord near its tips.[1]
The NA-16 flew for the first time on 1 April 1935,[1] and was submitted to the United States Army Air Corps for evaluation as a basic trainer. The Army accepted the trainer for production but with some detail changes. The modified NA-16 was re-designated by North American as the NA-18, with production examples entering Air Corps service as the North American BT-9 (NA-19). Similar aircraft continued to be sold outside the US under the NA-16 designation.[1]
In Australia, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation produced 755 units of a modified version of the NA-16 known there as the Wirraway between 1939 and 1946.[2]
Argentine experience with the NA-16-4P and deteriorating political relations with the US led to the local development of the I.Ae. D.L. 21 which shared the NA-16 fuselage structure, however it proved too difficult to produce and an entirely new design (the I.Ae. D.L. 22) of similar configuration, but structurally different and optimized to available materials was built instead.[3]
In Japan, the NA-16-4RW and NA-16-4R inspired the development of the Kyushu K10W when the Imperial Japanese Navy instructed Kyushu to develop something similar.[4] The resulting aircraft owed little to the NA-16, however Allied intelligence saw so few examples that the error was not corrected and some drawings show a modfied NA-16.[4]
Variants[1]
Listing includes aircraft built specifically under NA-16 designation for export, and similar aircraft built for domestic use.
- NA-16
- 1 for United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) (trials) developed into NA-18 and BT-9 series.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- BT-9 (NA-19)
- 42 built for USAAC - Minor changes from NA-18, new canopy
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- BT-9A (NA-19A)
- 40 built for USAAC - Armed BT-9 with one cowl gun, one rear flexible gun and modified canopy.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-2H (NA-20)
- 1 built for Trials, sold to Honduras (FAH)
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-22
- 1 built for USAAC trials but rejected as severely underpowered. Open cockpits as per NA-16 and Townend ring on engine.
- powered by Wright R-760
- BT-9B (NA-23)
- 117 built for USAAC - Unarmed with fixed rear on canopy.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- BT-9D (NA-23)
- 1 modified BT-9B for USAAC - BT-14 prototype with new outer wings, Harvard type canopy, lengthened fabric covered fuselage, triangular rudder and detail alterations.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior
- NA-16-2H (NA-27)
- 1 armed demonstrator sold to Royal Netherlands Air Force - not the same as the previous NA-16-2H.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NJ-1 (NA-28)
- 40 built to US Navy specifications, up engined BT-9B as advanced trainer.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- BT-9C (NA-29)
- 66 built for USAAC - BT-9A with minor changes.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- Y1BT-10 (NA-29)
- 1 built for USAAC, BT-9 with larger engine, similar to USN NJ-1 but armed and detail diffeences in engine installation.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- BT-10 (NA-30)
- Cancelled production version of Y1BT-10 for USAAC
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-4M (NA-31)
- 138 built for Sweden's Flygvapnet as Sk-14/Sk-14A. Sk-14N trialled nosewheel for SAAB 21.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind (Sk-14) or Piaggio P VIIc (Sk-14A)
- NA-16-1A (NA-32)
- 1 built for Royal Australian Air Force but rejected in favour of NA-16-2K, fixed landing gear, similar to Y1BT-10.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-2K (NA-33)
- 756 for Royal Australian Air Force in Australia as CAC Wirraway with local improvements
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-4P (NA-34)
- 29 built for Argentina (FAA) - 1st major export order (previous orders involved licence production).
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-4R (NA-37)
- 1 built for Imperial Japanese Navy as a technology demonstrator KXA-1 with fixed u/c and 3 blade prop.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior
- NA-16-4 (NA-41)
- 35 built for China (RoCAF) - Fixed gear, fabric covered fuselage
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-2A (NA-42)
- 2 built for Honduras (FAH)
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-1G (NA-43)
- intended for Brazil (Army) but order cancelled.
- NA-16-1GV (NA-45) - retractable gear and AT-6 type canopy but otherwise as per BT-9.
- 3 built for Venezuela (FAV)
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-4 (NA-46)
- 12 built for Brazilian Navy
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-4RW (NA-47)
- 1 built for Imperial Japanese Navy as a technology demonstrator KXA-2 similar to NA-16-4R but smaller engine.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-3C (NA-48)
- 15 built for China (RoCAF) - Retractable undercarriage, fabric covered fuselage
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-1E (NA-49/NA-61)
- 430 for Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force as the Harvard I with new canopy and square rudder. Also used by South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-16-4 (NA-56)
- 50 built for China (RoCAF) - Entirely new design with longer metal fuselage triangular rudder, later T-6 style wing.
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
- NA-57
- 230 improved NA-23s for France as NAA 57 Et.2, some captured and used by Germany, some to Canada.
- powered by Wright Whirlwind
- NA-16-3 (NA-71)
- 3 built for Venezuela (FAV)
- powered by Pratt & Whitney Wasp
Operators[1]
- Argentina
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Honduras
- Japan
- Netherlands
- South Africa
- Southern Rhodesia
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Venezuela
Surviving aircraft
Specifications (NA-16)
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 27 ft 7 in (8.41 m)
- Wingspan: 42 ft (13 m)
- Empty weight: 3,078 lb (1,396 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Wright R-975 Whirlwind , 400 hp (300 kW)
- Propellers: 2-bladed Hamilton Standard
Performance
- Maximum speed: 170 mph (270 km/h; 150 kn)
- Range: 700 mi (608 nmi; 1,127 km)
See also
- Related development
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
- Related lists
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Hagedorn, Dan (1997). North American NA-16/AT-6/SNJ. WarbirdTech Series. 11. North Branch, MN, USA: Specialty Press. ISBN 0-933424-76-0.
- ^ a b Francillon, René J. (1970). The Royal Australian Air Force & Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific. Aero Pictorials 3. California: Aero Publishers Inc. ISBN 978-0816803088. Library of Congress Number 76-114412.
- ^ a b c von Rauch, Georg; Veres, David L. (March 1983). "Argentina's Wooden Warriors". Air Classics (Challenge Publications) 19 (3): 14-21.
- ^ a b c Starkings, Peter (2007). "From American Acorn to Japanese Oak". Arawasi (Asahi Process, Tokyo url=http://www.arawasi.jp/)+(7): 26–31.
- ^ http://casa-query.funnelback.com/search/search.cgi?collection=casa_aircraft_register search aircraft model CA-1/CA-3/CA-7/CA-8/CA-16
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