North American NA-16

The North American NA-16 was the first trainer aircraft built by North American Aviation and the start of a line of closely related trainers that grew to more than 17,000 aircraft, most notably the T-6 Texan family. Company engineers sketched its specification in December 1934, with a closed canopy as a key feature of the advanced trainer, and the prototype flew for the first time on 1 April 1935 with Eddie Allen at the controls. It is a family of related single-engine low-wing monoplanes with tandem seating, built with open cockpits or under a glass greenhouse, and customers could choose among air-cooled radial engines such as the Wright Whirlwind and the Pratt and Whitney Wasp. The BT-9 series for the Army Air Corps and export variants grew from it.