The BT-13 thread on the WIX Hangar forum has moved on to discuss the Vibrators used by NACA and provides this link to an interesting publication...
https://history.nasa.gov/monograph26.pdfSensing an opportunity to fill in some missing information I quickly looked through the monograph's index and found one brief reference and two photo captions which mention a Fairchild F.24. Neither photographs show very much of the particular aircraft but it is best seen head-on in the background of the photograph of a F-86 on page 100. I suspect this is not a Fairchild UC-61 or UC-61A as the AAF records show none that were assigned to NACA.
It is known that one 24W-41A was purchased from Fairchild for use by NACA during 1942. The c/no. puts it between the last UC-61 (Argus I) and the first UC-61A (Argus II). Fairchild W41A-371 was eventually sold off and civil registered in 1953. One airworthiness document in the FAA file shows a previous identity
Quote:
ASSIGNED NACA
and
Quote:
NACA 100
. There is also a drawing of long probe which may have been mounted in a similar arrangement to that on the Piper J.4 Cub shown on page 113 of the above monograph.
I know of something of the post 1953 civil history from the FAA documentation but little or nothing of it's use from 1942 to 1953 by NACA/NASA, except that the photo caption on page 100 states the F.24 was used for training (c. 1952). However, the FAA file shows that prior to disposal and civil registration in 1953, W41A-371 was last used by, or loaned to, the University of Washington.
Does anyone know anything further of the Fairchild F.24's use by NACA, or the by University of Washington, and does anyone have a photograph of a Fairchild 24W marked 'NACA' or 'NACA 100' or fitted with a long under wing probe?
I know this is a very long shot, but it is worth the asking, thank you.
Tony Broadhurst