Lockheed Little Dipper

The Lockheed Model 33 Little Dipper, also called the Air Trooper, was an American single-seat monoplane designed by John Thorp and built by Lockheed at Burbank, California. It began as a private venture by Thorp for a two-seat light aircraft, and in April 1944 Lockheed agreed to build it. Because wartime rules limited materials, the company won the interest of the United States Army, which saw it as an aerial flying motorcycle for a flying cavalry, and two prototypes were authorised. It was an ordinary light aircraft with a low cantilever wing, a conventional tail, fixed tricycle landing gear and a 50 horsepower Franklin engine, and it proved capable of short takeoff and landing. It first flew in August 1944 and once landed and took off again in the courtyard of the Pentagon. The program was cancelled before the second prototype was finished, and both airframes were scrapped in January 1947.