Odd airplane, the Northrop Alpha

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Six passengers in the forward cockpit but the pilot sitting in open air atop the fuselage way behind them. I don’t know how the pilot could see to land with that huge engine up front.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Alpha#/media/File:Northrop_Alpha_(Y1C-19).jpg

2

Pilots not being able to see while landing was/is a common thing for mid-cockpit taildraggers. Doesn’t seem any worse than a GeeBee or Corsair

The de Havilland Fox Moth has a similar arrangement of enclosed, forward passenger compartment with the exposed cockpit behind (sometimes with an added cover). I wonder what the logic behind that design decision.

3

Both of those planes look like they are, in essence, upscaled versions of single-seat, exposed-cockpit planes from that era, which didn’t have separate passenger compartments.

4

I would bet sitting right behind the engine would make for a noisy flight. I was standing about 50 feet from a plane with a radial engine when it was started. It was very loud.

5

The late-1920s / early-1930s was the transition period from wood and fabric open cockpit biplanes to more modern aluminum monoplanes with enclosed cockpits. When I flew on the EAA’s Ford Trimotor the docent said that many pilots of the era were actually resistant to the new enclosed cockpit designs, believing that they needed to be able to directly feel the wind in order to fly the plane properly. I wonder if that explaines why this design put the cockpit where it is.

6

If you start with a design requirement for a single-engine aircraft with a giant radial up front that can carry passengers, the rest of thr design kind of flows from that.

  • for maximum efficiency, you want the aircraft as slim as possible. The limiting factors are engine size and cabin size. So if you put the cabin right behind the engine, you can taper the rest of the aircraft.
  • The pilot sitting far back is actually useful, because you can S-turn on the taxiway and runway. Being further back means you need less angle to see. Also, they probably needed the plane to be longer for weight and balance with that heavy engine and the passengers all up front.
  • The pilot sits on top pf the fuselage, to see over the engine. Why open cockpit? That’s a good question. It’s simpler, lighter, and cheaper. And this was in the era where open cockpit flying was more common. Also, the plane is unpressurized so flies lower where it’s feasible to be in an open cockpit.