Northrop Gamma

The Northrop Gamma was a single-engine all-metal monoplane cargo aircraft of the 1930s, a development of the Northrop Alpha that kept its wing fillets and multicellular stressed-skin wing and added spatted landing gear and a fully enclosed cockpit. It saw limited service as a mail plane with Trans World Airlines but had a notable career as a flying laboratory and record breaker. Frank Hawks flew a Gamma 2A from Los Angeles to New York in 13 hours 26 minutes in 1933, Howard Hughes cut the time to under ten hours in 1935, and the Polar Star carried Lincoln Ellsworth across Antarctica in 1935. Military versions fought with Chinese and Spanish Republican forces, and the type was developed into the Northrop A-17 attack bomber.