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| - The story goes back even before North American Aviation put its name on its aircraft but served as the parent to General Aviation at Dundalk. Maryland, where types GA-l to GA-15 wars created. In late 1934 the US Army issued a requirement for a new basic trainer; the next type encountered by pupil pilots after they had encountered the lower powered primary trainer. The General Aviation design team, under vice-president J. Lee Atwood, quickly produced a cantilever low-wing monoplane with all-metal structure (including a wing skinned with flush riveted stressed skin, though the rest of the aircraft was mainly fabric covered), fixed cantilever main legs, a 400-hp (298-kW) Wright R-975 Whirlwind engine and modern open cockpits. Instead of becoming the GA-16 it was styled as the NA-16, reflecting
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| abstract
| - The story goes back even before North American Aviation put its name on its aircraft but served as the parent to General Aviation at Dundalk. Maryland, where types GA-l to GA-15 wars created. In late 1934 the US Army issued a requirement for a new basic trainer; the next type encountered by pupil pilots after they had encountered the lower powered primary trainer. The General Aviation design team, under vice-president J. Lee Atwood, quickly produced a cantilever low-wing monoplane with all-metal structure (including a wing skinned with flush riveted stressed skin, though the rest of the aircraft was mainly fabric covered), fixed cantilever main legs, a 400-hp (298-kW) Wright R-975 Whirlwind engine and modern open cockpits. Instead of becoming the GA-16 it was styled as the NA-16, reflecting the company's change of name. The NA-16 was flown at Dundalk in April 1935, with civil registration X-2080. The US Army pilots at Wright Field thought it the best design submitted and the nearest approach to a tactical aircraft then achieved in a trainer, but requested several changes. This classic prototype thus became the NA-18 with enclosed cockpits (covered by tandem sliding canopies), a faired landing gear and the 600-hp (448-kW) Pratt 81 Whitney R-1340 Wasp engine. This aircraft was later sold to Argentina, but in late 1935 the US Army adopted the NAA trainer and placed an order for 42, with the designation BT-9. On the strength of this, the company moved to sunny California, paying a $600 annual rental for a site at Inglewood (on what is today Los Angeles International Airport) and building a completely new factory with 150 employees (nine years later the payroll had reached 91,000).
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)