Monthly Archives: March 2023

Northrop A-17A: Wing in glove.

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This A-17A (35-122) was used in the early 1940s by NACA Langley for laminar flow research program related to the future Douglas C-74 Globemaster. The main modificación was the installation of a pair of massive laminar-flow wing gloves. Curiously, a metal one on the left, and a wooden one on the right. Two tiny propellers on the wing leading edge moved by their own small engine were employed to simulate wing prop wash. Also seen in this photo are the pressure probe “rakes” placed on the wing trailing edge.

All for almost nothing because tests results were not up to the expectations; wind tunnel models proved to be more productive, and cheap. The A-17A was reverted back to standard and returned to the USAAF in 1943.

Nakajima Type 91-1: More than a little confused.

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The Big Apple under Japanese attack in 1937 in this Frederick Blakeslee’s art for the Dare-Devil Aces pulp book. Japanese Army AF Mitsubishi Type 93 (Ki-1-I) heavy bombers with Nakajima Type 91-1 escort (from where did they came?) against US. Navy Boeing F4B and Curtiss BF2C-1 Goshawk fighters. With a little help of a pair of RAF Furies (?). Blakeslee sure loved to portrait the British in his artwork, sometimes a bit too much.

Scrambled Aces indeed.

Japanese take.

Bréguet Br.XX Léviathan: Quel Monstre!

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This big four-engined all-metal airliner conceived to serve a Paris-London line was presented by Louis Bréguet at the Paris Salon de l’Aéronautique in November 1921.



Its main feature, the unique 32A “Quadrimoteur” engine was a joint effort of Bréguet and Ettore Bugatti, a 870hp power-pack unit which consisted of four 225hp Bugatti eight-cylinder engines coupled to the single propeller shaft fitted with two huge two-bladed prop. Two mechanics took care of them in flight. It had a six passengers front cabin and the two pilots seat behind the wing in an open cockpit.
The Br.XX made its first flight June 1922 and its tests proved fairly positive. So much so, that it was entered in the Grand Prix des Avions de Transport in November of that year where it was damaged during the contest and not classed. After that almost zero info; some sources say it was later destroyed undertaking some sort of testing.

Agusta-Zappata AZ.8L: Più è meno.

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Agusta’s only fixed-wing aircraft was conceived by the great Filippo Zappata as another contender for the replacement of the DC-3. First flown in 1958, this pretty 22-26 passenger airliner was powered by four 540hp Alvis Leonides 503/2 radial engines. The result was a beautiful technically successful design sadly equipped with too many engines and none of them (turbo)jets. Nobody was interested and the only prototype built (MM564) ended its days in uniform taken over by the Italian AF as a personnel transport aircraft until 1963.

Lovely cover artwork of The Aeroplane magazine, 14 Nov. 1958 issue.

FMA IA.58A Pucará: Gracias, Maestro.

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Just heard the utterly sad news of the departure of Ignacio “Canario” Azaola. An institution here in Spain, Azaola was one of our most respected aviation historians; his photo archive is just mind blowing.

Not “only” a photo collector, “Canario” took this stunning inflight picture during a visit to the BAM Reconquista, Santa Fé (Argentina) in 1981. The desert-camo Pucará (A-518) was the first of three ordered and later cancelled by the Armée de l’Air de la Republique Islamique de Mauretanie. The Argentine AF took it after some service with the manufacturer. Azaola was flying in the A-536, a Pucará later captured by the British in Las Malvinas.