Naval Aircraft Factory NO was an American short-range reconnaissance/gun spotting aircraft of the 1920s. A single-engined three-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

with alternative floats or wheels, six were built for the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

Development and design

The NO was designed at the U.S. Navy

Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for naval aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (''i.e.'', responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of naval aircraft and rela ...

(BuAer) as a single-engined single-bay

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

capable of being fitted with either a conventional tailwheel

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

or two floats. It was fitted with a 435 hp (324 kW)

Curtiss D-12 The Curtiss D-12, sometimes identified with the military designation Curtiss V-1150, was an aircraft engine of 18.8 liter displacement. It was a water-cooled V12, producing 443 hp (330 kW) and weighing 693 lb (314 kg). It wa ...

water-cooled V-12 engine, with a radiator installed between the floats or wheels, depending on such configuration. The design featured the use of W-type (aka

Warren truss In structural engineering, a Warren truss or equilateral truss is a type of truss employing a weight-saving design based upon Triangle, equilateral triangles. It is named after the British engineer James Warren (engineer), James Warren, who pat ...

) and N-type wing bracing struts, that offered both compression and tension resistance to static and dynamic loads, instead of the traditional tension wires employed on many biplanes of the period. This structural principle had been incorporated successfully in the design of the

Naval Aircraft Factory TS The Naval Aircraft Factory TS-1 is an early biplane fighter aircraft of the United States Navy, serving from 1922 to 1929. Development While the Vought VE-7s were serving the Navy well in the early 1920s, they were not originally designed as f ...

fighter, as designed by

Rex Beisel Rex Buren Beisel (October 24, 1893 – January 26, 1972) was an American aeronautical engineer and pioneer in the science and industry of aviation. He was the lead designer of several successful military and civilian aircraft, but is best known fo ...

when employed at BuAer, and later also used on the

Martin MS The Martin MS-1 was an experimental scout biplane ordered by the United States Navy and was intended to operate from a submarine. It first flew in 1923 and the type was used for tests until 1926 when the project was cancelled. Development In 19 ...

submarine-based biplane that required rapid assembly and rigging. The three crew occupied separate open cockpit stations, and the rearmost cockpit was equipped with a swivel-mounted machine gun for defense. Small differences observed between the Martin and NAF versions included exhaust stacks, fin and rudder shapes, and presence or omission of a propeller spinner.

Operational history

In 1923, pre-production construction contracts were issued to both the

Naval Aircraft Factory The Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) was established by the United States Navy in 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was created to help solve aircraft supply issues which the United States Department of the Navy, Navy Department faced upon the ...

(NAF) and

Glenn L. Martin Company The Glenn L. Martin Company, also known as The Martin Company from 1917 to 1961, was an American aircraft and aerospace industry, aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many impo ...

(as Martin Model 60), each for three aircraft, designated Naval Aircraft Factory NO and Martin M2O respectively. Deliveries of the Martin M2O-1 started in 1923, and all six aircraft were completed by the end of 1924. The NAF-built aircraft were assigned serial numbers A-6431 to A-6433 (initially designated as NO-1), and A-6452 to A-6454 were assigned to the Martin M2O-1 aircraft. Subsequently, the third NO-1 (serial number A-6433) was converted with a 440 hp

Packard 1A-1500 The Packard 1A-1500 was an American 12-cylinder liquid-cooled 60-degree Vee piston aircraft engine designed in 1924.Gunston 1989, p.109. Test flown in the second prototype Douglas XO-2, it proved to be unreliable. Only 29 engines ...

and redesignated as NO-2. Photos have shown that at least two Martin M2O-1 (A-6452 and A-6454), were configured with wheeled undercarriage during their service. The type proved to be no better than the

Vought UO Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace (part of Ling-Temco-Vought), Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought ...

in the gun spotting role, and was never placed into quantity production. All six were withdrawn from use by the end of 1927.

Variants

;NO-1 :Three-seat twin-float floatplane powered by a

water-cooled V-12 engine. Three built by the Naval Aircraft Factory. ;NO-2 :The third, and last, NO-1 was modified with a 425hp (317 kW)

water-cooled V-12 engine, and redesignated NO-2. ;M2O-1 :Designation of Martin-built NO-1, three built.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{USN observation aircraft N1O M2O 1920s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1923 Biplanes Floatplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Single-engined piston aircraft