Douglas XT3D

The Douglas XT3D was an American three-seat torpedo bomber biplane developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company to meet a United States Navy requirement. The prototype, BuNo 8730, first flew in 1931 and has been described as large and ugly. Of metal construction with a fabric covering, it had folding wings and an arrestor hook for carrier operation, a fixed tailwheel landing gear and a Pratt and Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engine, with three open cockpits for the gunner and bomb-aimer, the pilot and a second gunner. It failed the Navy requirements and was returned to Douglas, which fitted a more powerful radial engine and wheel fairings and enclosed the rear cockpits; redesignated XT3D-2, it still failed the trials and was not ordered into production, and the Navy used the prototype for ten years as a general-purpose aircraft before making it an instructional airframe in 1941.