NORTHROP YA-9 FIRST FLIGHT TEST FILM A-10 THUNDERBOLT RIVAL 85354
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This silent film shows the Northrop YA-9 performing its first public flight at Edwards Air Force Base. The Northrop YA-9 was a prototype attack aircraft developed for the United States Air Force A-X program. The YA-9 was passed over in preference for the Fairchild Republic YA-10 that entered production as the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Apart from aircraft themselves, the A-X program was also developing a powerful cannon for the winning plane to carry. Eventually, this would result in the GAU-8 Avenger, but for trials, the YA-9 and YA-10 were both equipped with the smaller M61 Vulcan Gatling gun. By comparison, the A-10 engine location at the tail is less conventional, but offers greater survivability in the case of a hit on the engine area. The double tail of the A-10 also hides the engine infrared and noise signature, and incorporates redundancy in case one of the tails is shot away.
A fly-off of the two prototypes took place between 10 October and 9 December 1972, with the YA-10 declared the winner on 18 January 1973.
The two YA-9 prototypes were subsequently relegated to NASA for continued flight testing before being quickly retired. When retired, the YA-9s' custom-built engines were removed and were later mated to a C-8 Buffalo airframe as part of the NASA-Boeing joint Quiet Short-haul Research Aircraft (QSRA) study into a quiet short-haul commercial aircraft.
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MORE LIKE THIS! There is such scant footage of the YA-9 available online that this submission marks a substantial addition to the few videos available. Thanks so much, this is really historic and an important contribution. Interesting plane, and interesting how much love Northrop got from USAF in that timeframe, winning one competition (lightweight international fighter F-5E/F) and being runners up on two more: the A-X and LWF competitions.
Quite a company, hope they stick around with the B-21.
They indeed have, for sure!
That tail fin is so 1940's!
I was thinking more 1950s, like the F2F Banshee, or FH Phantom, although late-40s Aircraft like the F3D Skyknight did have a tail reminiscent of this. I guess other aircraft of the late-40s, like the Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor have a similar tail. Although the Bell XP-83 has a tail that is nearly identical to the YA-9. It has the exact same dihedral to the horizontal stabilizer, and squared ends to the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, both.
Those are some airbrakes.
how many airbrakes is too many airbrakes?
Northrup: YES
It's hard to believe the Soviet SU-25 was b designed before this plane. Such similar designs.
I used to pull Last Chance end-of-runway inspection on this, and the second A-9A prototype, at Edwards AFB, as a member of the Transient Alert team, during the flight test program. In the initial stages of the test program, Last Chance was provided by the contractor, Northrop, but, eventually the responsibility fell to Transient Alert, who performed all end-of-runway Last Chance inspections on departing aircraft. For anybody in the Riverside, CA area, one of these prototype is current on static display at the March ARB Aviation Museum, off route 215.www.marchfield.org/
I saw this one earlier this month! How cool to see a comment from someone with a personal story about it. Thanks for sharing this, seriously.
@@charlesaferg Hi Charles, yes, I just happened to be at Edwards at a very historic time (1972-1974), and with a very special job, as a Transient Alert member.
A couple of weeks after I arrived at EAFB, we got a transient C-5A Galaxy in... When they opened the front cockpit, and lowered the plane to the ground, it was obvious that there was an aircraft loaded into the belly of that plane. So, I and my supervisor, along with several people from Contractor Row, and base VIP's, watched, as the very first F-15A Eagle (wingless) was pulled from belly of the C-5. Honestly, as a relatively new mechanic, I had no idea what I was seeing, other than a very modern looking plane being removed from this huge aircraft. I had no idea it was the very first prototype F-15, tail #280, as I'd been trained on many fighters from the previous generation (F-86, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, F-106, T-37, A-37, T-38, etc...) at Tech School, and this plane looked nothing like any of them. I watched that whole F-15 program develop, including all of the vertical displays, at center taxiway, during takeoff, where they lifted the nose vertically, and climbed until they were out of sight. They did this to impress visiting dignitaries, but, those of us stationed there got to witness the first aircraft that had more thrust than weight being shown off every couple of weeks! We also got to hear that A-10 30mm cannon burp at the distant weapons range, as they tested that very, very nice gun. We were all very lucky airman to be part of that historic moment,as well!
Eventually, during my remaining 2-1/2 years at Edwards, in Transient Alert, I eventually got the opportunity to pull Last Chance on all of the prototypes being developed right then (the F-15 #280, and the follow-on F-15's, the (2) YF-16's & (2) YF-17's, the (2) A-10's & the (2) A-9's, after the Contractor's did their initial many months of performing end-of-runway pre-flight preps & Last Chance'd their own planes. After things were a little more relaxed in their test programs, the Last Chance procedure fell to base personnel, from Transient Alert, along with our checking all the base aircraft before their departure.
It was a great & lucky time in aviation history, for Air Force personnel, and, crazy as it seems, most of these aircraft have updated models that are still flying, amazingly!
Joe Keene
I think that plane didn't know it had landed-it was so gentle!
I've seen the survivor. March feild air museum.
I wonder if the Secretary of Defense asked the Air Force, "Do you want an ugly aircraft, or do you want an aircraft so ugly your eyes will bleed?" LOL
The exact same question was asked again about the X-32.
You're everywhere! I see you in quite a lot of comment sections
Holy shit, this is great!
The ailerons on the A10 also split, this is the only other aircraft I have seen that feature, I wonder if that was part of the contract design or a mission specific feature.
The A-6 had the same feature.
Check out the tail section of the North American B-45 bomber.
Put folding wings on it and make it carrier operational would have been a great CAS bird for the Marines.
What da hell.. what an ugly plane.. and everybody says the A-10 is ugly.. WTF
Agreed! Everyone calls the A-10 "ugly".....but the YA-9 in this video is is disgustingly hideous! To me it looks like a reworked McDonnell F2H Banshee.
f2h banshee looks pretty this looks like its made for mad max movie
666MIHI ya the banshee and panther are some of the nicest looking jets ever made imo
Today I went to March AFB and I saw this aircraft on static display, in all honesty I didnt know it existed till today, for a moment when I did see it, i thought it was a Su-25
Those air intakes look like the front end of a machine for designed for the FOD induced distribution of broken turbine blades.
For the life of me I can't really figure out where the GAU-8 would have gone. I don't see an opening for it
The GAU-8 wasn't ready for use during the trials; both the YA-9 and the YA-10 used M61 Vulcan guns as a stand-in because of this. Both were intended to use the GAU-8 when it did become available.
Looks like su-23, su-25 and the a-10 had a butt baby...
There was no Su23!
Looks as devoid of character as a postal van, I'm glad the A-10 won just based on looks alone.
No audio?
+Merle Morrison Correct, it's silent.
+PeriscopeFilm OK, thanks. I thought it was just me........
This aircraft did win the competition and is still in regular service, with the Russians. They stole or acquired these designs and the SU-25 was the result.
+Nick Breen I was just thinking it looked like a SU-25..
*****
There are many such Russian designs that have a 'coincidental' resemblance to Western planes. The Brits played a fantastic prank with them once they learned the Russians were in the process of stealing some civil airliner designs. They created almost identical designs but with a slight change to them resulting in the center of gravity being too far aft. The Russians went ahead and stole the 'modified' drawings, built the plane and built a lot of them, thinking these were proven designs after all the testing the Brits had done, only to find the plane would pitch up onto its tail when parked on the ground! They allways had to carry ballast in the nose to compensate, reducing the payload and increasing the cost of flight. God only knows how the pilots handled it in the air, but the Russians got what they deserved.
That's very interesting and funny. Thank you..
I've read that anecdote a few times...but since, with age, I've gotten more skeptical about things: have you ever seen specifics? Thinking the story might refer to the VC10/IL62 similarities, I tried to find more info, but so far have only found indications it was Cold War posturing from the Brits.
David Windhorst
I have seen these particular airliners parked on ramps with wooden pallets built up as a tower below the tails, it is 100% true
If anything but tank-busting, the Vulcan 20 mm, or even an m-134 would be great options... I mean if you're dealing primarily with light armor and soft targets, think about the firing rate of TWO m-134s, or how much 7.62 ammunition an A-10 could carry, OR fuel, or flir pod, or HARM missles, or self-defense air to air, ... Lots of possibilities IF the mission didn't involve heavy armor justifying the 30 mm ...