Northrop XFT

The Northrop XFT was an American prototype carrier fighter of the 1930s, a single-engined low-winged monoplane of all-metal stressed-skin construction that resembled a scaled-down Northrop Delta. The United States Navy ordered one prototype on May 8, 1933, and a team led by Ed Heinemann designed it around a Wright R-1510 radial engine. The XFT-1 first flew on January 16, 1934 and was the fastest fighter the Navy had tested, but it handled poorly at low speed, had poor forward visibility and suffered severe tail buffeting in spins. A reworked XFT-2 with a Twin Wasp Junior engine was rejected, and the prototype crashed on July 21, 1936. The related Northrop 3A also failed, and its design passed to Vought.