Fokker XA-7

Fokker XA-7
Type:	Light bomber
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America
First flight:	January 1931
Number of pieces:	1

The Fokker XA-7 (also Atlantic-Fokker XA-7, factory designation Model 17) was a light bomb and close air support aircraft produced by the US manufacturer Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America , a subsidiary of Fokker.

In September 1925, the Fokker manufacturing facilities in Teterboro and at the nearby Hasbrouck Heights airfield , which operated as Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, were affiliated to the New York sales office of Fokker. This was also renamed the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. The company's last proprietary design before it was acquired by General Aviation Corporation in the summer of 1932 was the XA-7.

history

The XA-7 was Fokker's first all-metal construction . The first flight took place in January 1931, with a squat Curtiss GIV-1570C (V-1570-27) Conqueror 12-cylinder engine was installed. Fokker outperformed its competitor Curtiss, whose design Curtiss A-8 did not make its first flight until six months later. The Curtiss also had the Conqueror engine as a drive, but without the use of a reduction gear. The XA-7 was then transferred to Wright Field for field testing. At that time, the machine had large, streamlined trouser leg panels on the landing gear, but these were held responsible for buffeting phenomena under certain flight conditions . In addition, the crew found the cooling and wind protection to be inadequate. In the summer of 1931, the aircraft was therefore returned to the factory for revision.

The chassis received new teardrop-shaped wheel covers and the radiator was enlarged by a redesign, which, however, should have an adverse effect on the aerodynamics. With equally new windshields and a modified spinner, the aircraft went back to Wright Field, where the Curtiss XA-8 was now also being tested. The XA-7 was overall the more modern design without any external bracing, in contrast to the XA-8, which still had multiple braced wings. Apart from the flight behavior at low speeds, the Curtiss machine of the Fokker was superior in all aspects of performance and was declared the winner of the tender. The development of the Fokker was then stopped.

construction

The all-metal construction of the XA-7 was a departure from the hitherto Fokker preferred composite construction with a welded tubular frame body and wooden wings. This was done only reluctantly under pressure from the tendering authority. The aircraft was a cantilever low-wing aircraft with an aerodynamically largely optimized fuselage shape. The two crew members sat one behind the other in an open cockpit. The armament consisted of four 7.62 mm machine guns in the wings, which fired outside the propeller circle. Another movable machine gun could be installed in the rear cockpit; In addition, the carrying of a 221 kg bomb load over a two-hour flight was required.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Last run dates
crew	2
length	9.73 m
span	13.38 m
height	2.87 m
Wing area	30.94 m 2
Empty mass	1754 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	2563 kg
Marching speed	256 km / h
Top speed	296 km / h
Engine	1 × V - 12-cylinder -Triebwerk Curtiss V-1570 -27 Conqueror

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Plane Facts - First all-metal Fokker . In: AIR International July 1982, p. 46

Web links

Commons : Fokker XA-7  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Fact Sheet on the National Museum of the US Air Force website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bart van der Klaauw: Fokker's American Heydays . In: AIR Enthusiast No. 68, 1997, p. 3