General Aviation XFA-1

At the end of 20. the years started the us navy to experiment with the idea to use the aircraft heavier air as escort for the aircraft lighter air (i.e., blimp), which would at the same time served for their transport. For this purpose, was ordered the construction of the airships Akron and was a planned plane that would fit into her hangar, could take the role of the survey, the defense of the airship and also attack the exposed target. 10. may 1930 were the Office for aeronautiku issued detailed spefifikace as Proposal no. 96. Demanded e.g. margin of 7.77 m, length 6,17 m, height 2.13 m, take-off mass 1026 kg 297 kg of payload, the upper wing with a profile of the Boeing 106 passing into the hull, speed of 282 km/h at sea level, service ceiling 7285 m, endurance up to 4,85 h, two machine guns Browning M-2, grappling hook, inflatable emergency floats, etc.

The specs on the new "small on-board the aircraft" responded the two companies, General Aviation Corp. and Curtiss-Wright Corp. Because at the time of issue of the specifications of General Aviation Corp. was going through a reorganization, caused by the change of the owner (General Motors demerged its airline subsidiaries into the holding company of the General Aircraft Manufacturing Corp.), problems with the sales of transport aircraft because of the crisis and the crash of F.10 with the famous coach of american football on the deck, and the departure of Anthony Fokker from the company as a result of everything, was the XFA-1 completed up to the beginning of the year 1932. Because of the very specific requirements of the navy was the XFA-1, almost double the competitive XF9C-1. For the company, which by this time fundamentally used the fokker that the thick wooden wing, featured a new the model did not fly the first machine of all-metal construction and, paradoxically, with the exception of the variations on the theme of DH-4, which was built or was rebuilt in its early days, the first biplane. The only specimen of this metal, sheet metal coated with a biplane with the upper wing, passing into the fuselage and samonosným the chassis and the engine of the Wasp (according to older sources it was, however, used the R-985 Wasp Junior of 298 kW) was the base in the Anacostia delivered 5. march 1932.

XFA-1 was tested both with trojlistou, so later with a propeller blade and has met essentially all of the desired properties. Like the Sparrowhawk but suffered from problems with ovádáním, mainly with the longitudinal instability. He therefore promptly returned with a list of recommended modifications, which included mainly the enlargement of the tail surfaces and adding trimovacích surfaces on the elevator. He was also removed vrtulvý cone and covers the chassis. After returning to Anacostie in the middle of June but it turned out that the adjustments all rather deteriorated. The aircraft was now at full throttle too hard on the tail and vice versa. After a month it was returned to the manufacturers for further aerodynamic modifications, and in early August he was back in Anacostia for testing balance and stability. Even now it wasn't the navy satisfied and poručilo to perform flight tests in a spin. In them, the machine proved to be almost unmanageable and was declared dangerous. Further tests were therefore interrupted before it could occur to test the dive and the operation of the aircraft carrier.

A total of XFA-1 made 43 flights with a total flight time of 21.25 h. Shooting tests were carried out only on the ground, and during them with machine guns repeatedly jammed due to the ill to the supply of ammunition, and in addition dangerously close to the main filler neck was located. Any suggestions on solutions already come, because in the meantime, the navy has decided to project as unpromising to stop. The performances were very reasonable and fully within the limits of the requirements, but, as says the official report, due to the onset of a similar aircraft to the production of the needed XFA-1 ceased to exist. By a similar aircraft was, of course, F9C-2, the serial version of the competitive prototype XF9C-1.

Johnson, E. R. United States Naval Aviation, 1919-1941. McFarland, Jefferson 2011. ISBN 978-0-7864-4550-9.
Jones, LLoyd S. In.With. Naval Fighters 1922 that the 1980s, Aero Publishers, Fallbrook 1977, ISBN 0-81689-254-7.
Matt, Paul R. The United States Navy and Marine Corps Fighters 1918-1962. Harleyford Publications, Los Angeles, 1962.

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en.wikipedia.org
http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fww1/fa1.html

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