Northrop A-17 / 8A Nomad
Варианты:
Northrop - A-17 / 8A Nomad - 1934 - США
Страна: США
Год: 1934


Двухместный штурмовик
Описание:
A-17 / 8A Nomad
Northrop A-13, A-16, A-17 и A-33
Фотографии

A-17 / 8A Nomad

Семейство небронированных штурмовиков. Одномоторные цельнометаллические свободнонесущие монопланы с убирающимся шасси (у A-17, 8A-1 и 8A-2 шасси не убиралось, колеса в обтекателях). Семейство было создано в КБ "Нортроп корпорейшн" под руководством Дж. Нортропа на базе скоростного почтового самолета "Гамма" 2. Опытный штурмовик "Гамма" 2F впервые поднялся в воздух 6 октября 1934 г.
Серийное производство штурмовиков A-17 было начато в декабре 1935 г. на заводе "Нортроп" в Эль-Сегундо (впоследствии отделение Эль-Сегундо фирмы "Дуглас эйркрафт"). Самолеты семейства 8A строились также в Швеции, на заводе ASJA в Линчепинге. Всего было изготовлено 436 экз. в США и 103 экз. в Швеции.
Экипаж самолета - 2 чел. Двигатель и вооружение - в зависимости от модификации.
Самолеты семейства 8A состояли на вооружении в США с 1936 г., в Аргентине и Перу - с 1938 г., в Ираке, Швеции и
Нидерландах - с 1939 г., в Великобритании, Канаде и Южно-Африканском Союзе - с 1940 г.
Основные серийные модификации:
   - A-17 с мотором R-1535-11, неубирающееся шасси с колесами в обтекателях, вооружение 5x7,62, бомбы до 544 кг;
   - A-17A с мотором R-1535-13, убирающееся шасси, вооружение как у A-17;
   - 8A-1 (В5A), вариант A-17 с мотором "Меркьюри" XXIV, строился в Швеции, вооружение 3x8, бомбы до 544 кг;
   - 8A-2 с мотором R-1820-G3, экспортный вариант A-17 для Аргентины; неубирающееся шасси, вооружение 2x12,7+3x7,62;
   - 8A-3P с мотором R-1820-G3, экспортный вариант A-17A для Перу;
   - 8A-3N с мотором R-1830-S3C-G, экспортный вариант A-17A для Нидерландов;
   - 8A-4 с мотором R-1820-G103, экспортный вариант A-17A для Ирака;
   - 8A-5 (A-33) с мотором R-1820-87, экспортный вариант A-17 для Норвегии, вооружение 2x12,7+6x7,62, бомбы до 816 кг.
Выпуск самолетов 8A был прекращен в США в январе 1941 г., в Швеции - в середине того же года. В США с 1939 г. A-17 и A-17A передавались для учебных целей. Часть A-17 была направлена в страны Британского содружества как "Номад" I после капитального ремонта и установки двигателей R-1830-S2A5-G.
Первый случай боевого использования штурмовиков семейства 8A - оборона Нидерландов от немецкого вторжения в мае 1940 г. Они несколько дней бомбили и обстреливали войска противника. Иракские самолеты участвовали в налетах на английскую авиабазу Хаббания во время мятежа Рашида Али в мае 1941 г. и практически все были уничтожены английской авиацией. Перуанцы использовали свои 8A-3P в войне с Эквадором в 1941 г. В Англии, Канаде, ЮАС "номады" служили только как учебные. В Швеции B5A сняли с вооружения в 1944 г.


A-17A||
Размах:||14,58 м
Длина:||9,65 м
Моторы, количество х мощность:||1 x 825 л.с.
Взлетная масса, максимальная:||3320 кг
Максимальная скорость:||352 км/ч
Практический потолок:||5900 м
Дальность:||1170 км

Northrop A-13, A-16, A-17 и A-33

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   После проведения испытаний самолетов YA-13 и XA-16 компания-разработчик получила контракт стоимостью 2 млн долларов на постройку 110 бомбардировщиков-штурмовиков под обозначением A-17. Однако испытания XA-16 показали, что его двигатель излишне мощный, и тогда вариант Gamma 2F был оснащен другим двигателем - R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior мощностью 750 л. с. Данная машина использовалась в качестве прототипа для создания A-17. После внесения некоторых других изменений первый из 109 серийных самолетов A-17 был поставлен Армии в декабре 1935 года.
   В том же месяце компания получила контракт на усовершенствованный вариант A-17A, имевший убирающееся шасси с хвостовым колесом и двигатель R-1535-13 мощностью 825 л.с. Компания "Northrop" построила 129 таких самолетов, но в 1937 году "Douglas" приобрела оставшиеся 49% акций компании "Northrop Corporation" и продолжила выпуск. Из общего количества самолетов, поступивших в авиакорпус Армии США, 93 находились у него в эксплуатации только 18 месяцев, после чего были возвращены компании "Douglas" для перепродажи Великобритании и Франции. Британские ВВС получили 60 самолетов, обозначенных как Nomad Mk I, а впоследствии все они были переданы южно-африканским ВВС.
   Компания "Douglas" также выпускала данные самолеты на экспорт под обозначением Douglas Model 8A, среди покупателей были Аргентина, Ирак, Нидерланды и Норвегия. Партия из 34 Model 8A-5 была поставлена Перу, но в начале 1942 года 31 самолет реквизировали для нужд ВВС Армии США. Вооруженные шестью 7,62-мм пулеметами и способные нести до 816 кг бомб, самолеты затем использовались в качестве учебно-тренировочных под обозначением A-33.


ТАКТИКО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ

   Northrop A-17A

   Тип: двухместный штурмовик
   Силовая установка: один звездообразный ПД Pratt & Whitney R-1535-13 мощностью 825 л. с. (615 кВт)
   Летные характеристики: макс. скорость 354 км/ч; практический потолок 5915 м; дальность 1175 км
   Масса: пустого 2316 кг; максимальная взлетная 3421 кг
   Размеры: размах крыла 14,55 м; длина 9,65 м; высота 3,66 м; площадь крыла 33,63 м2
   Вооружение: пять 7,62-мм пулеметов (четыре для стрельбы в переднюю полусферу и один на наводимой турели в задней кабине), плюс четыре 45-кг бомбы
A-17A of the 90th AS, Barksdale Field. Squadron commander’s aircraft. A-17A of the Materiel Division, Wright Field.
A-17A of the 90th Attack Squadron during the 1938 war games. Camouflage was applied with water-based colours. The fuselage bands denote the commander's aircraft.
Canadian Nomad 3513 of 3 Training Command.
The Northrop Model 2F featured a semi-retractable landing gear and a revised cockpit arrangement. This aircraft later became the first A-17.
Серийный вариант A-17 имел модифицированные обтекатели шасси.
Flight of fancy - strange duck-like shadows cast by a formation of U.S. Army Northrops
GOING HOLLYWOOD: Northrop attack machines of the U.S. Army Air Corps (Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior engine with gilled cowling) over Californian orange groves. These machines are intended primarily for ground strafing and apart from one free and four fixed Brownings are equipped for the dispensation of chemicals.
An A-17 formation flying over March Field in 1938.
A Formation of Northrop A.17 Attack Monoplanes of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Lethal Trails: Northrop A.17 attack machines demonstrate gas dispensation
"Doughboys" scurry away as a Northrop attack machine simulates the laying of a lethal trail during manoeuvres. A defensive Boeing P.26A fighter is worrying the attacker, but must be at a great disadvantage over home ground.
ATTACK: Two Douglas parasol observation monoplanes and a Northrop attack machine of the U.S. Army Air Corps go forward to clear the way for a flock of tanks during combined manoeuvres in Georgia.
The Northrop factory with several A-17s awaiting delivery to the Army Air Corps on June 6, 1936.
A Northrop A-17 in aluminium finish in 1941. As the tail designator indicates, this one belonged to the 45th Air Base Squadron. Noteworthy are the anti-glare panel and the propeller blades painted matt black on the reverse.
Photographed during a stopover at Felts Field, Spokane, Washington, on March 11, 1943, A-17 35-121. Note that wheel trousers had been deleted causing potential confusion with an A-17A.
A Northrop A-17 carrying the Army’s Command and Staff School Insignia. The wheel and cowling chequerboards are blue and yellow. Note that the aircraft has no gunsight.
Штурмовик A-17 имел неубирающееся шасси с характерными обтекателями колес
Northrop A-17A.
A-17A 36-169 equipped with smoke generator pods under the wings. Intended to interfere with anti-aircraft fire, the smoke screens laid by the A-17s proved to be of little effect during manoeuvres.
From March 1941, the surviving A-17s began to be painted in olive drab and neutral grey camouflage. This one belonged to the Sacramento Air Depot.
The R.A.F. received sixty-one Northrop Nomad attack-bombers, sixty of which were later sent to South Africa.
A-17A из 95-й штурмовой эскадрильи на маневрах 1938 г.
A Northrop attack monoplane being armed from a special tractor-drawn sledge (note two of the four wing-mounted Brownings);
A total of 61 ex-French aircraft were handed over by the RAF as Nomad Is. AS441, shown here, was the second of these aircraft. Most of them were delivered to the SAAF. Note the exhaust stack.
The Northrop A-17A, named Nomad by the RAF, saw no operational service during its limited period in Britain, and virtually all the 61 taken on strength were shipped to South Africa in 1941.
Canadian Nomads were mainly used as advanced trainers with Bombing & Gunnery Schools.
A line of A-17As belonging to 3rd Attack Group seen at Kelly Field. The aircraft are fitted with smoke dispensers.
AMERICAN SHOWMANSHIP: The mass formation is led by Northrop A.17.A attack machines, followed by Douglas B.18s, which may be regarded as the bomber derivative of the commercial D.C.2; Picture is from the M.G.-M. film Test Pilot, which has its premiere at the Empire Theatre, London, tomorrow (Friday).
Northrop A-17As from 73rd AS peeling off. Note how the designation ‘AQ28’ is repeated on the port wing of the aircraft.
So low do attack machines fly that they must drop their fragmentation bombs by parachute to avoid the explosions. The machines shown are of the standard Douglas (Northrop) type.
Spraying a thin solution of whitewash to simulate a gas attack, Douglas (Northrop) machines of the U.S. Army Air Corps demonstrate one of the functions of an attack squadron.
One of the two Bristol Pegasus XII engined Model 8A-1 built at El Segundo for the Swedish Air Force. A full year after the Douglas take-over, the trademark on the fin still reads Northrop.
The Northrop 8A-1 Two-seat Attack-Bomber Monoplane (875 h.p. Bristol "Pegasus" engine).
ASJA-built B5s were recognisable by the front-mounted antenna mast and bubble canopy.
A Norwegian Douglas Model 8A-5N during reception flight. This variant was the most powerful of all Model 8s, easily recognisable by the large engine cowling with its upper air intake.
The Norwegian training centre at Island Airport, Toronto, ready for an inspection in 1941. Seven Douglas 8A-5s can be seen with three Fairchild Cornells to the left
Future fighter ace Svein Heglund (right) planning a training flight with a student pilot. Posted to No. 331 (Norwegian) Squadron in early 1942, Heglund went on to become the top-scoring Norwegian fighter pilot in W.W.II, with 16 1/3 confirmed victories, was awarded the D.S.O., D.F.C. and Bar in addition to the highest Norwegian decorations, and after the war became head of the R. Norwegian A.F.'s Air Material Command, retiring with the rank of Major-General
The USAAF operated ex-Norwegian aircraft under the designation A-33. This one, belonging to an unknown unit, was photographed at Moffett Field, California, on March 7, 1942.
Fitted with a 1,200 h.p. Wright GR-1820 Cyclone engine and machine-gun gondolas under the wings, the 8A-5 was the most powerful and heavily armed variant of the Northrop/Douglas series of attack aircraft. Norway’s 8A-5s became A-33-DEs in USAAF service, an example of which is seen here at Kelly Field, where they were stored.
Трехместный штабной A-17AS являлся переделкой типа A-17, 1935 г.
A-17AS flown by Major General Westover. Note ‘1’ and two stars on the tail. Arnold’s aircraft had one star and was number ‘2’. The modified canopy is clearly visible
A batch of 13 A-33s were delivered to Peru by the USAAF. Camouflaged example at la Palmas Air Base, Lima, in 1959. It is most certainly one of the very last flying aircraft of the type.
Peru ordered ten Model 8A-3Ps, this example photographed before delivery on December 12,1938. Note that the Northrop insignia has been retained on the fin but it reads Douglas.
Three of the 8A-3Ps await their formation delivery flight to Peru on the tarmac at El Segundo in May 1939. The first of the Peruvian 8A-3Ps to be completed made its maiden flight on November 21, 1938, and the ten were given c/ns 412-421. The 8A traced its heritage back to the Northrop Gamma 2F, developed into the USAAC’s A-17.
A line-up of Peruvian training aircraft at Las Palmas airfield, Lima, in 1956. Nearest the camera is an 8A-3P, with an 8A-5, fitted with machine-gun gondolas, alongside.
Another rare image, this time of 8A-3Ps at Capitan Victor Montes airfield near Talara, in December 1942. These 8A-3Ps have not yet been painted in the Sea Blue finish; the aircraft were repainted in batches so as not to remove the entire unit from service at once. All had been repainted by the time of the arrival of the 8A-5s, however.
Four of the five 8A-3Ps that set off on the CAP’s five-week tour of South America in 1940, dubbed “Los Zorros”, during their visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fifth was forced to return to Lima after damaging a wingtip while taxying in Ecuador at the beginning of the tour.
President Bustamante y Rivero reviews the aircraft and personnel of 31 EIA on October 6, 1948, after their participation in action against rebel sailors of the Peruvian Navy during the “October Revolution” of October 3-5. Before the month was out, the President had been ousted in a coup led by Army General Manuel Odria.
The CAP’S 8As were used extensively during the conflict with Ecuador, often as bombers; here an 8A-3P is rearmed with fragmentation bombs before another bombing sortie from Tumbes forward airfield on the Peru-Ecuador border, in late July 1941. The 8A was also fitted with a pair of Browning 0-3in machine-guns in each wing.
Douglas 8As of 31 EIA taxy out for take-off at Teniente Coronel Pedro Ruiz Gallo airfield in Chiclayo in July 1947.
With only the red, white and red vertical bars of the rudder providing any clues as to its intended destination, one of Peru’s original ten 8A-3Ps, all built at Douglas’s El Segundo factory, is test-flown over the California coast in late 1938 or early 1939. Seven of the 8As were transported to Peru by ship and three were delivered by air.
Showing the type's distinctive perforated flaps for dive-bombing, one of Peru’s initial batch of Douglas 8A-3Ps undergoes flight testing in the USA before delivery.
Wearing the original bare-metal finish in which the aircraft were delivered and their somewhat long-winded unit codes - XXXI for the Escuadron; 92 for the Escadrille and 1 for the individual aircraft - a formation of 8As patrols over Peru’s northern coastal region in July 1941, at the time of the conflict with Ecuador, also known as Guerra del 41 (The War of ’41).
For the 4,700-mile (7,600km) delivery flight from Los Angeles to Lima, the three 8A-3Ps were given the serials BO-1G to BO-3G, the first of which is seen here during the flight on June 4, 1939, with Lt-Cdr Armando Revoredo Iglesias at the controls and Capt Jorge Virgil Morey in the rear seat as radio operator/flight engineer.
Although of poor quality, this rare photograph shows the overall matt Sea Blue finish applied to the 8A-3Ps from April 1942, and following this machine’s assignment to the newly activated 23 EIA. Note the use of Arabic numerals instead of Roman, which were phased out in 1942.
In November 1943 a total of 13 refurbished Douglas 8A-5s, along with ten Curtiss Hawk 75As, were flown from Texas to Las Palmas, where this line-up of 8A-5s was photographed shortly after their arrival in November 1943. The aircraft were apparently ferried in an Olive Drab scheme, as seen here, but were repainted in a camouflage scheme early in 1944.
Showing the 8A-5’s armament of four 0-3in machine-guns within the wings, a pair of underwing gondolas each containing a 0-5in machinegun, plus a 0-3in machine-gun on a flexible mount in the observer’s cockpit, this example is seen in the Dark Green, Dark Earth and Light Gray camouflage scheme applied from early 1944, and with a squadron badge below the front cockpit.
Douglas 8A-5 serial 276 at Las Palmas in the late 1940s, by which time markings were minimal, with a small roundel aft of the cockpit and the aircraft’s 200-series serial aft of that. Like the rest of the aircraft (apart from the black anti-glare panel on the forward fuselage), the rudder is bare-metal and no longer sports the original red, white and red stripes.
With the rear cowling of its Wright Cyclone engine removed, 8A-5 serial 266 of the re-formed 31 EIA undergoes maintenance at Vitor, Arequipa province, in February 1948. The year would prove to be another busy one for the CAP’s 8As, with operations in support of the government to extinguish a right-wing rebellion in July and two more attempts to overthrow the government in October, the last of which was successful.
An Argentine Model 8A-2 awaiting delivery. Argentina purchased 30 aircraft and the type was operated until 1955.
The Argentine Model 8A-2s were camouflaged and operated by the Regimiento de Ataque 3, stationed near Mendoza.
The Model 8A-3Ns were delivered to the Netherlands in October 1939. Up until the end of the year, they were painted with the Dutch insignia as used from 1920, an inverted orange triangle outlined in black.
Аэродром Ипенбург по окончании боев: Разбитые десантные "Юнкерсы" и захваченный немцами голландский бомбардировщик "Дуглас" DB-8A
A Dutch Model 8A-3N showing the new national insignia. Nearly all these aircraft were lost during the German attack on May 10, 1940.
Northrop 8A-3N.
Designed and developed by the original Northrop company, which became the El Segundo Division of Douglas in 1937, the Douglas 8A was essentially an export version of the Northrop A-17. Iraq ordered 15 for the RIAF in November 1939. THis as-yet-unserialled example is seen at the factory at El Segundo before delivery to Iraq in the summer od 1940.
The detailed story of the Iraqi Northrops is not known but they were most probably destroyed on the ground by RAF aircraft in 1941.
When King Ghazi was killed in a car crash in April 1939, the throne descended to his three-year-old son, Faisal II. Until such time as the latter came of age, Iraq was ruled by his uncle, Abdul Hah, seen here in the Douglas 8A-4 in which he flew from Baghdad to Amman to visit his uncle, the Emir of Transjordan, in August 1942.
A batch of Northrop A-17s in pristine condition, with serial numbers apparently chalked on the rudders - 36-175 in the left foreground. The A-17A was an attack aircraft powered by an 825 h.p. Pratt & Whitney R-1535-13 radial engine. This photograph was taken in June 1940, location unknown.
Four Mosquitoes are visible in this group on the Satends apron in 1945. Also visible are a Northrop 8A-1 (B5) target tug and a Focke-Wulf Fw-44J Steiglitz (Sk-12) trainer, both of the Swedish Air Force. The nearest Mosquito is engineless.
An A-17 was operated by NACA to investigate the characteristics of laminar flow airfoil sections. During tests, the aircraft retained its original 90th AS markings.
Northrop A-17 serial 35-122 was fitted with large sleeves on each wing for trials with the laminar-flow wing proposed for Douglas’s C-74 Globemaster. Each was fitted with two-bladed propellers driven by an auxiliary motor to study the effects of swirling airflow. Douglas blamed NACA for “wasting time” on laminar flow development.
The first engine cowling experiment conducted by NACA with A-17A 36-184. Needless to say that this cowling resulted in excessive engine temperatures.
A-17A 36-184 after modification. Known as the ‘Nose-blower Northrop this aircraft had a spinner with a built-in fan. Results were encouraging but the modification was not introduced on production aircraft.
This photograph - the first close­up to be published of the installation of the Bristol two-row sleeve-valve Hercules in its Northrop A.17 flying test-bed - shows how compactly a unit giving over 1,300 h.p. can be installed. Features to be noted are the single large exhaust outlet, the air intake scoop above the cowling, the controllable cooling gills and the mounting behind the bulkhead for the Bristol remote box for auxiliary drives.
Pratt & Whitney R-1535-11 Twin Wasp Junior as mounted on the A-17.
Thanks to the semi-monocoque construction, the fuselage was both light and robust. Fuselage interior behind the rear cockpit. Command cables and pulleys are evident.
One-piece wing centre section of the A-17. Fuel cells not yet installed.
The centre wing section was attached to the fuselage by six bolts.
A-17 fuselage was designed into two halves facilitating assembly and riveting.
The multicellular wing of the A-17 inherited from the famous Northrop Gamma permitted the easy installation of fuel tanks.
Underside of the A-17 outer port wing panel. The Curtiss H-75 (P-36) wings featured identical units.
Port side of the pilot's cockpit showing engine controls and armament panel.
Starboard side of the pilot’s cockpit showing engine gauges, cowl flaps command and starter pedal.
A-17 A gunner’s station. The storage compartment for the machine-gun, with its folding doors on the top of the fuselage, is visible on the right.
The damage to XXXI-91-2 of No 91 Escadrille is inspected by CAP personnel after a landing mishap at Villa auxiliary airfield in October 1941. That month the conflict with Ecuador drew to a close and the 8As were recalled to Lima, where most had returned by early November
Having deposited its port mainwheel on the runway after a particularly heavy landing at Las Palmas, 8A-5 serial 276 is inspected by 31 EIA personnel. The damage was deemed to be minimal and the aircraft was swiftly repaired and returned to service within a few days. The type proved itself to be a rugged and dependable asset for the CAP.
Northrop A-17A. Key to sectional illustration: 1 - 825hp (615kW) Pratt & Whitney R1535-13. 2 - Oil tank. 3 - Instruments panel. 4 - Rudder pedals. 5 - Engine controls. 6 - Safety harness. 7 - Radio. 8 - Plotting desk. 9 - Engine controls. 10 - Machine gun travel ring. 11 - 0.30 cal flexible machine-gun. 12 - Tail navigation light. 13 - Stainless steel exhaust collector. 14 - Oil cooling radiator. 15 - Engine mount. 16 - Firewall. 17 - Retracting gear crank. 18 - Seat adjustment crank. 19 - Fuel tank. 20 - Rudder pedals. 21 - Detachable joystick. 22 - Safety harness. 23 - Sliding and folding gunner’s seat. 24 - Elevator control pulley. 25 - Rudder control cable. 26 - Elevator control horn. 27 - Tailwheel. 28 - Rudder control horn.
Northrop A-17A.
Northrop 8A-3N