Northrop N-3PB no 320

Northrop N-3PB no. 320 Specifications

Manufacturer Northrop Aircraft, Inc., Hawthorne, California
Number Built 24
Wing Span 48 feet, 11 inches
Overall Length 38 feet
Overall Height 12 feet
Wing Area 376.8 sq. feet
Takeoff Weight 10,600 lbs.
Speed – Maximum 257 mph
Speed – Cruising 215 mph
Range 1,400 miles
Service Ceiling 28,400 fee
t Powerplant Wright Cyclone, Air Cooled, Radial, 1200 hp
Armament (4) 50-cal guns, (2) 30-cal guns, (1) 2,000 torpedo, or equivalent weight of bombs

The Northrop N-3PB bomber is a thre-place low-wing monoplane powered by a single Wright Cyclone 1820-40 engine. The floats were designed and constructed by the Edo Corporation. First flight-tested in 1940, then the N-3pb was soon identified as the world´s fastest miltary seaplane. All of the 24 N-3PBs were bulit for Norway during WW II.

This Northrop N-3PB no. 320 is the sole remaining of its kind, having been originally accepted from Northrop Inc. on 25 March 1941. After arrival at Reykjavik, it was assembled and allocated the code letters F.20 in June 1941. Much to the Norwegians’ dismay, RAF markings had to be introduced a month later and the N-3PB became GS-U.

Its first operatjon was flown on 5 August, an anti-sub¬marine sweep of almost six hours’ duration. On 11 October 1941, GS-U was transferred to the squadron’s C-Flight at Budareyri, on Iceland’s east toast, which apart from some short breaks, remained its base until it was withdrawn from use early 1943. Going into storage, GS-U ditched in the glacier river Thjorsa on its transfer flight 21 April 1943. It remained there until the late 1970’s, when the wreck was discovered by Icelandic aviation historians.

With assistance from Northrop Inc and the RNoAF, it was eventually recovered and brought to California in November 1979. A major restoration followed, during which some men who had worked on the original batch of 24 aircraft in 1940-41 tame back to lend a hand knocking one of them back into shape.

On 10 November 1980, Northrop handed the beautifully restored N-3PB back to the RNoAF, and the following year it was shipped first to Iceland for a brief display there and then finally on to Gardermoen for permanent display at The Norwegian Military’s Airplane Collection.

Operational history

Northrop’s Chief Test Pilot Vance Breese flew the first N-3PB (c/n 301) on 22 December 1940 from Lake Elsinore, California. The flight test and customer acceptance trials were successfully completed using the first production aircraft. Due to the use of the more powerful Cyclone engine, all performance estimates were exceeded and flight characteristics including maneouverability were considered “excellent.”

All 24 aircraft were delivered to the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service by the end of March 1941. In late February 1941, six production N-3PBs were flown to RCAF Station Patricia Bay, Vancouver Island in Canada, one of the Canadian winter bases of the Flyvåpnenes Treningsleir (FTL) Norwegian training bases known as “Little Norway”.

The remaining 18 N-3PBs were used to equip No. 330 (Norwegian) Squadron RAF in Reykjavík, Iceland. The N-3PBs sent to Iceland were all shipped across the Atlantic in crates on board the Norwegian steamer Fjordheim, the voyage from New York to Reykjavik taking 13 days to complete. Part of the reason for deploying the N-3PBs to Iceland were to avoid having the unusual aircraft operating over the United Kingdom, with the involved risk of friendly fire incidents.[14]

No. 330(N) Squadron was declared operational on 25 April 1941; the N-3PBs were erected in a seaplane hangar at Reykjavik, with the first aircraft flying by 2 June 1941. The squadron flew antisubmarine and convoy escort patrols from 23 June 1941, with flights based at Reykjavík, Akureyri and Budareyi. While the squadron’s N-3PBs carried out eight attacks on German U-boats, including one on U-470 after it had surrendered to the British,] no U-boats were sunk.

On a number of occasions in 1942, the N-3PBs clashed with Focke-Wulf Fw 200 long range reconnaissance bombers and Blohm & Voss BV 138 flying boats, being credited with at least one damaged. On 10 October 1942, a “Northrop” from Budareyi was involved in a friendly fire incident, attacking a British Lockheed Hudson. The incident ended without any of the aircraft involved being hit.

In an effort to publicize the N-3PB operations, the British Air Ministry circulated a report that two Norwegian-flown aircraft had been involved in the attack on the German battleship Bismarck on 21–22 May 1941, but it was a patently false example of wartime propaganda. Despite many aviation historians disputing the claim, it still appears in current accounts of the sinking of the Bismarck.

No. 330(N) Squadron began re-equipping with flying boats such as the Consolidated PBY Catalina in 1942, with both the Catalina and the N-3PB, beginning to be displaced in February 1943 by the arrival of a more advanced flying boat in the squadron, the Short Sunderland. Flying boats allowed for greater ranges to be covered, and typically had superior sea-going qualities to the N-3PB. The surviving N-3PBs continued to operate alongside the Catalinas, flying fighter patrol, escort and antisubmarine operations off Iceland’s east coast until early 1943.

Throughout the transition to other types, the squadron’s C-Flight maintained an “all-Northrop” unit, predominately involved in secondary roles including army cooperation, transport, air-sea rescue, ice reconnaissance and ambulance roles. In early 1943, No. 330(N)’s crews relocated to Oban, Scotland, on the troop ship Leinster. Two of the remaining N-3PBs flew to Oban. The eight aircraft left behind on Iceland were scrapped in Reykjavik between December 1942–April 1943.

The N-3PB’s service as an advanced trainer in Canada in the “Little Norway” summer base at Island Harbour, Toronto and winter bases along the western coast of Canada, was relatively brief when it was determined that pilot and air crew graduates were to be integrated into RAF squadrons. Arrangements were made later in 1941 for the advanced flight training of Norwegian pilots to be carried out in RAF and Royal Canadian Air Force schools on types that better fit the transition to combat flying.[26] Consequently, the three surviving N-3PBs were stored until shipped to Iceland in March 1942 on the steamer Delta.

Throughout its combat service from 23 June 1941–30 March 1943, No. 330(N)’s N-3PBs carried out 1,1011 operational sorties, totalling 3,512 hours flying time. Although eight attacks on U-boats proved inconclusive, the constant N-3PB escort patrols and antisubmarine sweeps were instrumental in guarding the sea lanes of the North Atlantic.