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General Aviation XFA

1932 GOLDEN AGE X-PLANE

History of General Aviation XFA

In the early 1930s, the United States Navy (USN) paid close attention to modernization in the context of emerging threats. This led to the drafting of Specification No. 96, which called for a new, state-of-the-art ship fighter capable of matching the performance of its contemporaries - although the secret lies in the US Navy's ambitions to produce light "Parasites" - thinking His airship fleet develops fighter jets. General Aviation Airlines (GAC) was one of the participants in the competition Berlin Joyce "XFJ-1" and Curtis "XF9C-1" also participated.

Founded by Anthony Fokker himself in 1924, the company eventually became the manufacturer of North American Aviation (classic WWII-era P-51 Mustang and B-25 Mitchell aircraft.

The GE Aviation brand itself follows Atlantic Aircraft / Atlantic-Fokker.

The 1930s offered aviation students the opportunity to further develop vintage designs. While biplanes, fixed landing gear and open-air cockpits are still popular, developments now allow for internal metal structures and full metal skin coatings on surfaces - improving tolerances and encouraging higher speed/power.

The XFA-1, submitted to the US Navy authorities, was largely conventional in its design layout: the engine was mounted on the nose, the pilot was positioned above the midship and relied on a vertical plane with the horizontal plane set low. The biplane wing arrangement is in action, with the upper members spanning longer than the lower members, both connected by N-type struts, creating a single-cabin, unequal-span appearance.

The upper wing is also integrated into the upper part of the fuselage, rather than being made of a single structure as usual. Once again, the pilot sits in the open-air cockpit and can see the upper wing panels - but the view outside the cockpit is still limited by the biplane wings.

The fixed landing gear has a pair of wheeled main legs under the front mass of the aircraft, and the tail wheel is located under the tail.

The fighter is powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1340-C Wasp series air-cooled radial piston engine producing an impressive 450 horsepower and driving a twin-blade propeller unit in the nose. The same engine was later used in the 1932 Boeing P-26 "Pea Shooter" USAAC fighter, the soon to be North American T-6 "Texas" military trainer, and the future Sikorsky H-19 "Chickasaw" "Universal Helicopter.

With nearly 35,000 units eventually produced, the Wasp engine family was the predecessor to the famous R-985 "Wasp Junior".

Use full metal construction wherever possible, although the wings and tail surfaces are still cloth.

The weapon is centred on a 2 x .30 caliber medium machine gun mounted on the nose and fired in synchrony with rotating propeller blades - enough offensive firepower to deal with any threat of the day.

Dimensions include 22.1ft barrel length, 25.5ft wingspan and 9.2ft height. The curb weight is 1,835 pounds, and the overall rating is 2,510 pounds.

The U.S. Navy tested the XFA-1 in March 1932, and subsequent trials showed that the model was lacking in key areas compared to its competitors. The control of the fighter was considered poor, so structural changes were required for general aviation.

Modifications didn't help, and the throttle/nose issue persisted - resulting in the plane being more dangerous to the pilot than any enemy at the time.

As a result, the design was ultimately rejected by the US Navy, and GE Aviation has since ceased work on the model. Challengers to the US Navy's ongoing requirements have all had rather limited success - one XFA-1 was completed and flown, while the Curtiss XF9C-1 won and was further developed into seven of the US Navy's F9C Sparrowhawk Parasite fighters Operational examples - these were scrapped back in 1937 - a prototype of the Berlin-Joyce XFJ has been tested/flyed.

The tested XFA-1 has a top speed of 170 mph, a range of 520 miles, and a service ceiling of 20,200 feet. The rate of climb is 1,470 feet per minute.