Northrop Beta

The Northrop Beta was an American single-engine, all-metal, low-wing sporting monoplane built in 1931, a small relative of the Northrop Alpha and Gamma. Only two were built. The first was a two-seater with a 160 hp Menasco Buccaneer inline engine and crashed in California. The second was a single-seater fitted with a 300 hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp Jr. radial engine, and it became the first aircraft of that power to exceed 200 mph. It was flown to Wichita for sister company Stearman Aircraft to use as a demonstrator, but with the poor economy none were sold. After Army Air Corps engineers examined it at Wright Field it passed to private owners and was later used as a flap test platform until a wing failure destroyed it on May 4, 1934.