Northrop BT

The Northrop BT was an American two-seat, single-engine monoplane dive bomber built by the Northrop Corporation for the United States Navy while Northrop was a subsidiary of Douglas. Design began in 1935 around a Pratt and Whitney radial engine, with perforated split flaps as dive brakes to stop tail buffeting in dives. The BT-1 followed in 1936 and 54 were ordered, entering service in 1938 aboard USS Yorktown and USS Enterprise. It handled poorly, especially at low speed, was prone to unexpected rolls and was lost in a number of crashes. The Navy therefore ordered a redesign, the XBT-2, which flew on 25 April 1938 and became the Douglas SBD Dauntless, the backbone of the Navy dive bomber force.