The Jack Northrop-designed A-17A was a pre-WWII development of the old Northrop Gamma. Some 411 of the attack planes were produced, each armed with five light machine guns and up to 1200-lbs of bombs in an internal bay. Operated by a two-man crew, they were too slow (200-knots) for front line service in the war and were used primarily as training aircraft.
Canada picked up 32 A-17A’s, which were termed by the Commonwealth as “Nomads” from an embargoed French order and used them as part of No. 3 Training Command RCAF. One of these monoplanes, 3521, was very unlucky. While flying over Lake Muskoka, Ontario on December 13, 1940, it crashed in a collision with another aircraft, taking her two crewmen to the cold water below. Discovered in 2010, the crew’s remains were retrieved.
Now the RCAF has come back for 3521.
