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Jack Northrop's Anniversary

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From 10th November 17:00 GMT till 11th November 17:00 GMT

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John Knudsen “Jack” Northrop was born on 10th of November 1895, in New Jersey, USA. Following a cared childhood in California, Northrop began his career in the aviation industry around the age of 20, when he joined the Lockheed Aircraft Manufacturing Company in 1916 as an engineer.



During his time at Lockheed he was responsible for designing the wings of the F-1 flying boat as well as the light S-1 biplane, advancing his skills as an aircraft engineer. After working for Douglas Aircraft Company and Lockheed, he founded his first own company, the Avion Corporation, in 1928, where he also experimented with flying wing aircraft designs.



In 1939 Northrop and his company shifted focus towards military aviation, and during World War II Northrop was involved in many military designs, including the development of his own Northrop P-61 “Black Widow”, which later became the first night fighter of the US Army Air Force.



Jack Northrop was also involved in the design of what would later become the A-20 series of US attack aircraft, together with fellow aircraft designers Donald Douglas and Ed Heinemann. The most produced series, the A-20G with around 2850 examples, was introduced in February 1943 and served until the end of the war. Powered by 1.600 hp R-2600-23 engines, the A-20G originally featured an armament of four 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 machine cannons along with two .50 cal machine guns, but the unreliable cannons were later replaced by a total of six .50 cal machine guns. Used by the US forces primarily in the Pacific, variants of the A-20 fought on all theatres of the war, including Western Europe and the Eastern Front.

The War Thunder Team