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| North American Aviation Inc, designed during 1937 the prototype of a lightweight primary trainer which it designated North American NA-35.
Powered by a 93kW Menasco Pirate inline engine, it was of low-wing monoplane configuration with fixed tail-wheel landing gear, and seated the instructor and pupil in tandem open cockpits. When the NA-35 failed to win a US Army Air Corps contract in 1939, North American sold all rights to Lockheed's Vega subsidiary. Vega built only four of these Vega 35 aircraft, two with more powerful 119kW Menasco
Pirate D-B engines, the first flown in 1941, but by then the company had no manufacturing capacity available and Vega 35 production was abandoned.
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 875 kg | 1929 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 9.07 m | 30 ft 9 in |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Max. speed | 216 km/h | 134 mph |
| Wayne Ford, e-mail, 25.02.2014 02:48 My dad, Frederick Arthur Ford, Jr., was a flightline test engineer at NAA who worked on the NA-35. I have a rare photo, which I have never seen anywhere else, of the NA-35 sitting on the flightline with 36 NAA workers standing /squatting in fronr of it with one of them sitting in the forward cockpit. That man was my dad. There is also a radial engine aircraft with AAF markings in the background. Anyone else seen this photo? reply |
| don carter, e-mail, 02.12.2009 21:36 ihave upper engine cowl from a vega 35 crash yellow with black aanti glare. would like to learn history of each one,n numbers, ee reply | | Harry Gordon, e-mail, 24.03.2009 19:57 My first open-cockpit flight was in a Vega 35 based at Gardena Valley Airport near L.A. in 1945.
The prototype North American NA-35 was built as a potential primary trainer for the Army, but the Ryan ST was chosen instead. (Both planes used the Menasco engine.) NAA then sold the design and manufacturing rights to Vega, but only four Model 35s were built. NAA reportedly used the NA-35 wing design for the Navion.
A few days after my ride in the Vega, I had a breakout of impetigo on my face, apparently contracted from the dirty flying helmet I borrowed for the flight.reply | | Marc Guerriero, e-mail, 11.06.2007 04:26 I forgot to mention, the prototype by North American was called the NA 35. reply | |
| | Marc Guerriero, e-mail, 11.06.2007 04:23 Comet model co., which is now out of business made a flying balsa kit of this airplane. Of course the prototype was made by North American aircraft. with the prototype, North American failed to interest the Army. That is when they sold the license to manufacture this design to lockheed Vega. Lockheed Vega only made four of these under contract. when the U.S. got involved in the war, the company did not have the capacity to manufacture additional models of this aircraft. You can find a photo of the Prototype on the internet. It had the registration# NX 14299. I have the model kit by comet. You can sometimes find them on e bay. If you ever get a hold of this model kit, you will find that the U.S. Army military markings in the plan ( and decals that come with the kit) are deceiving since the Army turned the design down. reply | | pete maynard, e-mail, 31.12.2006 00:54 my father recently passed away and i've been going through his logbooks. in book #3 covering 8 /26 /1941 to 8-23-1944 I noted one entry of him flying a "Vega 35", registration # NC28352 on 6-12-1943 at at Wichita Falls, Texas. He was an instructor teaching the "secondary instructor course" at Wichita Falls. not familiar with this type aircraft i found it through your website, cross checked the registration number and found that only 4 of the Vega 35's were made. very interesting find. thanks for the info. reply |
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Hi Wayne, I ran across your comment on aviastar about the NA-35. I have a instrument panel I purchased back in 2004 and I have been trying to ID the panel. The picture you mentioned about your dad sitting in the cockpit does it show the instrument panel?
Thank You,
Gregory
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