Northrop A-17A (A-17) Attack Bomber Original Factory Photo Army Air Corps 8x10 For Sale

Northrop A-17A (A-17) Attack Bomber
Original Factory Photo Army Air Corps 8x10
The Army's Last Pre-War Single-Engine Attack PlaneDESCRIPTIONThis is an original vintage black and white factory photograph of a Northrop A-17A, the U.S. Army Air Corps attack bomber with retractable landing gear, photographed on the ramp from the left side of the nose. The close view shows the propeller hub and blade, the cowling with its row of cowl flaps and a dark panel across the top, a slim rod above the cowl ahead of the windshield, the forward end of the tandem canopy, a slender tube projecting ahead of the wing root, and the main wheel hanging below its large streamlined fairing, with a wheel chock at the tire and the wing's shadow across the concrete. White negative lettering at the lower right of the image reads 3003 NORTHROP, and the reverse carries a period pencil notation reading A17A attack bomber. The print is approximately 8 x 10 inches.The A-17A was the Army Air Corps' last single-engine attack aircraft ordered into production before World War II, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. It grew out of the fixed-gear A-17, adding fully retractable landing gear and an 825-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp Junior radial. A crew of two flew it, with four forward-firing .30 caliber machine guns, a flexible gun in the rear cockpit, and bombs carried in an internal bay and on wing racks. A total of 129 were built before production ended in 1938, and they served with the 3rd Attack Group at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, and the 17th Attack Group at March Field, California. In 1938 the Air Corps decided that future attack aircraft should have more than one engine, which ended the line, and the museum notes that features such as its split, perforated flaps carried into the Douglas Dauntless dive bomber. The company behind the airplane changed too. Douglas dissolved the original Northrop Corporation in 1937, and its El Segundo plant became the El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft.The A-17 family also carries a sober footnote in Air Corps history. On September 21, 1938, Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, Chief of the Air Corps, was killed when his Northrop A-17AS, the three-seat staff transport version of the A-17A, serial 36-349, crashed near Lockheed Airport in Burbank, California. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold succeeded him as Chief of the Air Corps that same month, and Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts is named for Westover. This print does not identify an individual airplane, and the story is shared as context for the type.After the fall of France in 1940, A-17As went to Britain and Canada as the Nomad, flying as trainers and target tugs. One of them, Nomad 3521, was lost in December 1940 when it collided with another Nomad over Lake Muskoka, Ontario, during a search for a missing aircraft. The wreck was located in 2010, divers recovered the two airmen aboard in October 2012, and they were buried side by side in Guelph, Ontario in September 2013.The image has been scanned at 600dpi so every detail is preserved for your review. This is a single photograph; the additional images in this listing are close-up crops of the same print, plus the reverse.Every effort is made toward fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you're unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I'll make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via Ground Advantage with tracking. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25 in cost. All shipments receive rigid, professional packaging, sealed and protected in acid free sleeves. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout.CONDITIONBlack and white gelatin silver print with a cream border. The image is sharp on the propeller hub, cowling, wheel and fairing, with a long tonal range from bright metal to deep shadow under the wing. The white lettering 3003 NORTHROP is crisp at the lower right of the image. A few tiny dust specks are visible, and fine vertical grain lines show in the paper surface and border. A thin amber edge from the album page shows along the lower border, and the corner shown is sharp and square. The reverse carries amber adhesive residue in brush-stroke patterns, patches of darker tan album paper with torn edges, gray paper fibers along the lower left, and a few small rough, whitened patches along the left edge where fibers lifted. A period pencil notation reads A17A attack bomber. The residue is on the reverse only and does not affect the image side. Please review all photos closely, as they are part of the description.