URL : https://www.valka.cz/North-American-A-27-t67709#471427
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North American A-27 In 1938, the North American NA-44(NX18981), a prototype derived from the BC-1, first flew. It was powered by a 578 kW, air-cooled, nine-cylinder Wright R-1820-F52 radial engine and was armed with five 7.62mm Colt-Browning machine guns (two in the fuselage, two in the wings, and one movable). In 1940, this machine was sold to the RCAF for testing.
But the parent company produced export two-seat attack versions of the BC-1. The first of these was a 10-machine series, designated by North American as the NA-69. Together with the fighter NA-68, they were ordered on 29 November 1939 by Thailand as two-seat fighter-bombers. As standard, the NA-69 was equipped with dual controls and could be used as a trainer, but for combat operations, a movable machine gun was mounted in the exposed rear compartment with a swivel seat. The first machine was flown in late June 1940. However, the finished machines were intercepted in Manila en route to Thailand in January 1941 and confiscated by the US Army, as Thailand had meanwhile become a Japanese ally. In March 1941, these machines were assigned the designation A-27 (serial numbers 41-18890 to 41-18899) and were turned over to the 4th Joint Group for use. Five machines were destroyed in the Philippines in various accidents, and in December 1941 all remaining machines were destroyed by Japanese bombing of Nichols Field and Clark Field airfields. Interestingly, due to poorly shaped engine cowls, the two machine guns in the nose could not fire until afterwards parts were sent to Thailand for modification.
After a prototype demonstration, thirty machines, under the serial designation NA-72, were sold to Brazil. These machines were flown in groups of six to Rio between July and October 1940, with stops in the capitals of most local states. Apparently influenced by impressions from a stop of these machines in Chile, that country ordered twelve machines essentially identical to the Brazilian machines on 7 August 1940. These machines were designated North American NA-74 (serial numbers 74-4745 to 74-4756). Both the Brazilian and Chilean aircraft served in these countries under the designation NA-44, derived from the original "Canadian" prototype. All but one of the Chilean machines survived to 1946.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/North-American-A-27-t67709#238744
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