Northrop YC-125 Raider

The Northrop YC-125 Raider was a 1940s American three-engined STOL utility transport built by Northrop Corporation of Hawthorne, California. It grew from the N-23 Pioneer, a 36-passenger civil design meant to replace the Ford Trimotors of the airline TACA, which first flew on 21 December 1946 but lost its order when TACA lost its United States routes, and which crashed in 1948 after a tailfin failed. In 1948 the Air Force ordered 23 of the same configuration: 13 troop transports as the C-125A and 10 Arctic rescue aircraft as the C-125B, designated N-32 by the company. The first flew on 1 August 1949 and three 1,200 hp Wright Cyclone radial engines powered it, with JATO rockets for a take-off run under 500 feet. Underpowered, they were retired in 1955 and many went to bush operators in Latin America.