Boeing GA-1
| GA-1 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Engineering Division/Boeing GA-1 | |
| Role | Ground attack |
| Manufacturer | Boeing |
| Designer | Isaac M. Laddon |
| First flight | May 1920 |
| Introduction | 1921 |
| Retired | 1926 |
| Primary user | USAAS |
| Number built | 10 |
The Boeing GA-1 (company designation Model 10) was an armored triplane. Designed in 1919, it was powered by a pair of modified Liberty engines driving pusher propellers. The first of the Engineering Division's heavily armored GAX series (ground attack, experimental) aircraft, the ponderous airplane was intended to strafe ground troops while remaining immune to attack from the ground as well as from other enemy aircraft. It was so well armored that its five-ton weight proved excessive.
Soon after the end of World War I, the US Army sought to explore highly armored and armed specialist ground-attack aircraft. This was a pet project of General William Mitchell. The Army Air Service Engineering Division issued requests for proposals to U.S. aircraft producers on 15 October 1919. There were no designs offered, so the Engineering Division ordered one of its engineers, Isaac M. Laddon, to attempt what the aviation industry clearly considered impossible. His design, designated GAX, first flew at McCook Field on 26 May 1920. The GAX was McCook Field Project P129 and wore AAS serial number 63272.
Aerodynamic cleanliness was sacrificed to fields of fire for its eight machine guns. The sturdy structure was able to carry a heavy load of ammunition along with about 2,200 lb (998 kg) of armor plate. The result was an angular machine of wire-braced wooden construction with plywood and fabric covering. A rectangular-section fuselage carried the forward gunner in an open nose position, the pilot in a semi-enclosed cockpit with armored shutters for forward vision, and the rear gunner in an open dorsal position. The engines were carried in mid-wing nacelles.
As designed, the armament was comprehensive. The pilot was in control of a 37 mm cannon, four fixed Lewis guns fired forward and down, and a machine gun fired forward and upward over the wings. A further two Lewis guns fired to the rear and downwards (through a fuselage tunnel) and a single machine gun up and over the wings. A gunner's position was in the nose. The armor covered the front half of the fuselage and the engine housings.
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