Walkaround - Naval Aviation Factory N3N Yellow Peril Bu.42782
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What:
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Walkaround - Naval Aviation Factory N3N-3 Yellow Peril Bu.42782
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Where:
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Carl
A. Spaatz Field / Reading Regional Airport, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. |
When:
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World War II Weekend,
June 4-6, 2010. |
Here is a
walkaround of a Naval Aviation Factory N3N, the Yellow Peril, as the
cadets called it back in WWII. This dash-3 example, Bu.No.42782 (civil reg. N44718), is owned by
Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, and is in impecable condition, attending
several air shows every year.
The
N3N seems overlooked in favor of his stablemate successor, the
Boeing PT-13/N2S Caydet, and the two are often mistaken for each other.
The Yellow Peril played a very important role during pre-war and WWII
years, training thousands of pilots, and still is not as well
documented as other aircraft of its era (neither well represented in
modeling industry).
A
word of caution for those using these photos as a reference - the
engine is not the original. Thanks to David Jenista, owner of the NotAStearman blog, for the clarification:
"The
Reading aircraft has a replacement engine. All N3N-3 aircraft
(which includes all remaining complete aircraft in North America) left
the factory with an NAF license built version of the Wright
R-760. The installation is somewhat unusual with a front-mounted
exhaust collector. This is enough of a visual difference that it
merits the comment. The P&W R-985 was the most common conversion
when the surplus N3Ns were converted for crop duster operation.
The increase from 235HP to 450HP made a big difference in load
capacity. Most likely this aircraft was a duster at one time and
has been restored to “two-holer” configuration. Today
the Lyc. R680 is very popular with owners of the N3N because of good
power (300HP), constant speed propeller, and spare parts. R-760 parts
are becoming expensive and difficult to find."
The correct engine should look like in the photo below:
General
views:
Wings and fuselage:
Tail:
Landing gear:
Engine:
I hope
you find these photos useful somehow. If you have
any interesting information about the history of this aircraft, please drop
me
a
line.
Rato
Marczak ©
2011
