North American Aviation Corporation (NAA) was founded in 1925 by the Curtiss
Aeroplane & Motor Company as a holding company of various airlines in an effort
to provide a guaranteed market for Curtiss aircraft; NAA was reorganized and
incorporated in 1928. Between 1925 and 1929, NAA purchased the stock of (1)
National Air Transport (NAT) which began air mail service between New York,
New York and Chicago, Illinois in May 1926 with ten Curtiss aircraft; (2)
Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) formed in May 1928 to carry both air mail
and passengers on transcontinental flights between New York and Los Angeles,
California in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Railroad and Santa Fe Railroad; (3)
Varney and Maddux Air Lines, two West Coast airlines; (4) Northwest Airways
which provided service from Chicago to Minnesota and Wisconsin; and (5) the
Cuban airline Compania Nacional Cubana de Aviacion Curtiss S.A. NAA also
purchased the stock of the Douglas Aircraft Company.
Two wholly owned subsidiaries of NAA were Pitcairn Aviation and the
Berliner-Joyce Aircraft Company. Pitcairn Aviation, which had begun service from
New York to Miami, Florida via Atlanta, Georgia in May 1928, was purchased in
July 1929 and renamed Eastern Air Transport in January 1930. Berliner-Joyce
Aircraft Company was located at Logan Field, Dundalk, Maryland, a suburb
southeast of Baltimore. At the time, Berliner-Joyce, renamed B/J Aircraft
Corporation in 1930, was manufacturing biplanes for the U.S. military.
The year 1929 saw the formation of three huge aviation conglomerates that
controlled a number of airframe, engine and propeller manufacturers and the major
airlines. The last one formed was the Curtiss-Wright Corporation which was
formed in June when the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company and the Wright
Aeronautical Corporation merged. The new Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the parent
of NAA, now combined an aircraft, engine and propeller manufacturer with six
large airlines. However, the crash of the Stock Market in 1929 led to the Great
Depression and sales of aircraft dropped dramatically in 1930. The year 1930 also
saw a battle between NAA and United Technologies for two airlines with United
Air Transport acquiring control of NAT and purchasing Varney.
TAT, which had purchased Maddux Air Lines in 1929, merged with Western Air
Express (WAE) in July 1930 forming Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA).
This merger saw the entrance of the worlds largest automobile manufacturer, the
General Motors Corporation (GM), into the picture. GM had purchased a majority
interest in the Fokker Aircraft Corporation founded by Anthony Fokker in 1924 as
the U.S. branch of the Dutch firm. WAE had gained majority control of Fokker
Aviation in 1929 and in 1931, GM had acquired effective control of WAE. All of
the assets of the Fokker company were reorganized as the General Aviation
Manufacturing Company (GAMC), a subsidiary of GM.
With decreased sales during the Great Depression, Curtiss sold NAA to GM in
1933; NAA then purchased all of the shares of GAMC, acquired the remaining
stock of B/J Aircraft and consolidated all aircraft manufacturing in a plant in
Dundalk, Maryland under the name GAMC. NAA also disposed of its interests in
Douglas Aircraft and all airlines except Eastern Air Transport leaving NAA with
two divisions, GAMC and Eastern Air Transport. NAA's fortunes again changed in
1934 upon passage of the Air Mail Act by the U.S. Congress. One clause in the
Act prohibited any air mail contractor from having any interest in other aviation
enterprises except landing fields; this clause became effective on 1 January 1935.
On that date, NAA reorganized and absorbed all the assets of GAMC and became
an aircraft manufacturer but also retained its ownership of Eastern Air Transport,
renamed Eastern Air Lines in 1934, arguing that the precise wording of the new law
did not preclude one company from building and operating aircraft. NAA finally
conceded the principal of separating manufacturing and operating companies and
sold its holdings in Eastern Air Lines in April 1938 thus ending NAAs 13-year
investment in airlines.
General Motors finally sold all of its shares in NAA in June 1948.
When NAA purchased the shares of GAMC in 1934, General Aviation was
working on two projects, the Model GA-43, a single-engine commercial airliner,
and the Model GA-15, a three-seat observation aircraft for the U.S. Army.
Another clause in the Air Mail Act of 1934 doomed the Model GA-43 transport;
this clause forbad the use of single-engined transports operating in the U.S. to carry
passengers on scheduled services at night or over terrain unsuitable for emergency
landings. One Model GA-43 had been built and it was eventually scrapped because
it could not be sold. The Model GA-15 observation aircraft, redesignated Model
NA-25 when NAA became a manufacturing concern, was sold to the Army as the
O-47.
The U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC), superseded by the U.S. Army Air Forces
(USAAF) on 20 June 1941, began to modernize in the mid-1930s ordering
monoplane pursuit and bomber aircraft. The basic training aircraft used at the time
were converted observation or primary training biplanes and it was realized that
monoplanes were needed in the training role. The first order for basic training
monoplanes was placed with Seversky in March 1935 and deliveries of the 20
BT-8s began in 1936. The BT-8 was expensive, tricky to fly, difficult to maintain
and had a tendency to ground loop. NAA felt they could build a better aircraft and
began work on the NAA Model NA-16 the first of over 21,000 trainers that NAA
built for the U.S. and foreign military during World War II.
The NA-16 was a two-seat, all-metal, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with
fixed landing gear and steerable tail wheel. The wings were metal covered while the
fuselage was all-metal with detachable fabric-covered aluminum alloy frames aft of
the engine. The vertical fin and rudder, the horizontal stabilizer, elevators and
ailerons were fabric-covered. The original NA-16 featured two open cockpits with
dual controls but the USAAC requested individually-operated sliding enclosures
and fairings (wheel pants) over the main landing gear legs and inner halves of the
wheels. The aircraft was powered by a 400 hp (298 kW)Wright R-975 engine
driving a two-bladed, controllable-pitch propeller.
The USAAC placed an order for 42 aircraft, designated BT-9, on 28 September
1935; the production version was designated Model NA-19. The first contract was
followed on 31 October 1935 by an order for 40 BT-9As, Model NA-19As, for
the Air Corps Reserve. The BT-9A had the flight controls removed from the rear
cockpit; the inclusion of a K-3B gun camera; two 30-caliber (7.62 mm) machine
guns, one fixed in the nose and one flexible in the rear compartment; an interphone;
and other minor changes.
An order for 82 aircraft highlighted the fact that the Dundalk, Maryland plant was
inadequate for the manufacture of modern aircraft and a search was made for a new
location in the Los Angeles, California area. A site was found on the southeast
corner of the Los Angeles Municipal Airport (Mines Field) near Inglewood, and a
new plant was completed in January 1936. The first BT-9 came off the assembly
line in April 1936 and made its first flight on 15 April. Further contracts followed for
117 BT-9Bs (Model NA-23) for the USAAC, 67 BT-9Cs (Model NA-29) for
the Air Corps Reserve and one BT-9D with redesigned wings.
The U.S. Navy (USN) also desired modern trainers and placed an order for 40
NJ-1s (NAA Model NA-28) through the USAAC on 14 December 1936. The
NJ-1s were similar in most respects to the BT-9B except for the engine; instead of
the Wright engine, the NJ-1 was powered by a 550 hp (410 kW) Pratt & Whitney
R-1340 radial engine.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
NJ-1: 40 Model NA-28s powered by a 550 hp (410 kW) Pratt & Whitney
R-1340-6 engine.
NJ-2: The last NJ-1 temporarily re-engined with a 450 hp (336 kW) Ranger
XV-770-4 engine.
OPERATIONAL HISTORY
The 40 NJ-1s were delivered to Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida
between November 1937 and August 1938 and used for intermediate flight training.
In December 1941, 39 NJ-1s were still at NAS Pensacola. As more modern
training aircraft became available during World War II, some NJ-1s were used as
the personal aircraft of high-ranking officers. The last NJ-1 was stricken from the
inventory in August 1944.
SPECIFICATIONS
Power Plant
Wing Span: 42 feet (12.80 meters)
Length: 27 feet 11.6 inches (8.52 meters)
Height: 8 feet 6.3 inches (2.60 meters)
Wing Area: 248.3 square feet (23.07 square meters)
Empty Weight: 3,250 pounds (1,474 kg)
Loaded Weight: 4,675 pounds (2,121 kg)
Maximum Speed: 174 mph (280 km/h) at sea level
Cruising Speed: 140 mph (225 km/h)
Service Ceiling: 24,900 feet (759 meters)
Maximum Range: 944 miles (1,519 km)
Armament: None
NJ-1: One 550 hp (410 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1340-6 nine-cylinder, single-row,
air-cooled, radial engine.
NJ-2: One 450 hp (336 kW) Ranger XV-770-4 twelve-cylinder, two-bank,
air-cooled, inverted Vee engine.