Fairchild AT-21 Gunner - Survivor?

[quemerford]

The above "assignment" links are misleading; in many cases these are ferry units which were not assigned aircraft but only took 'ownership' of a mishap whilst being flown by this unit's crews. In the case of 42-48422 (for example), it was being ferried from McDonnell at Memphis to its real assignment at Selfridge Field.

[Chris Brame]

https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/rptAF55.asp?RecID=73200

More about that crash. The Evening Courier, October 19, 1944:


The Evening Post, October 20, 1944:

[quemerford]

@CVAIRWERKS: you have a PM. Or hopefully you do.

[Cvairwerks]

Thank you, answered.

[quemerford]

Random piece of paperwork showing notice of termination for the Bellanca plant:

[quemerford]

And this an indication of the in-service issues experienced. Randolph had just recommended a fleet grounding:

[JohnB]

In addition to the trainers, Fairchild received a contract for two drone conversions, eventually named the XBQ-3. They seem about as successful as the trainers.

The AAF was looking for a drone with enough of a payload for long range bomber missions.
The Fairchild was modified with a redesigned fuselage with a raised cockpit for a two man ferry crew. It was to be used as either an expendable or reusable aircraft with a 4000 pound payload...either an internal non drop able bomb, two drop able 2000lb bombs or or two torpedoes. The good-sized twin with its elaborate TV guidance system was considered valuable enough so it could be reused.

Interestingly, with a full fuel/weapon payload, its minimum airspeed was too high for it to land safely.
That meant its weapons would have to be dropped or fuel burned-off before a landing attempt.

Two prototypes were delivered to Wright Field, in April, 1944, one was damaged in July in a forced landing, the second was destroyed by fire soon after in another forced landing.

The Army eventually wrote off the program's $1.4 million dollar cost.
The AAF continued on with a version of the Navy Interstate TD2R twin drone, calling it the BQ-4.

Here are some photos from Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_BQ-3
My source "American Aircraft Development of WWII: Special Types 1939-1945 " by Bill Norton, differs from the Wiki entry in some details.

[Cvairwerks]

Interesting stuff quemer. Think there is any way to dig up contract information on the deliver configuration of the Bellanca built aircraft? From all the photos I've seen over the years, there has been a number of different nose bowls on the fuselage. Don't know if some were test units or production or depot level mods.... I haven't found the nose in the drawings yet. I'm only about 1/3 of the way thru the first reel in converting them to .pdfs.

[quemerford]

I'm about halfway through documenting the sad tale of the AT-21 and hadn't realised what an abysmal display of poor everything it was: from constantly-changing requirements to mismanagement of suppliers on the part of the USAAF to poor performance by the three manufacturing lines and their subcontractors. "Quality" as we now know it didn't seem to exist and even manufacturing fixtures were sent to the production lines which were out of tolerance. There was even a point in August 1943 when Training Command questioned the need for flexible gunnery trainers, having "just found out" about the AT-21, despite requesting that very aircraft in late 1942!

If you think modern programmes are lengthy and fraught with bureaucracy then we at least know where it began.

Meanwhile the AT-21 seems to have notched up an obscure milestone: it was the first aircraft on which an in-flight blood transfusion was carried out! They also serve...

I'll post my completed text here as soon as it's complete.