Manufacturer: NORTH AMERICAN

Model: NA-86

Name: Battewagon

Type:

Date: 1942

Status: Prototype evaluation

Country: United States

Service: U.S. Army Air Force

Designation: none

When Japan declared war to the U.S. in December 1941, North American Aviation figured it would be good to develop a medium-size, single-tail transport using the NA-40 Mitchell as a basis. They built a single prototype of the NA-86 Battlewagon and sent it to U.S.A.A.F. for trials.

However, there were already plenty of Douglas DC-3s, and NAA's production capacity was needed elsewhere, with the Mustang and Mitchell. The Battlewagon was therefore rejected and returned to NAA, which cannibalized the airframe forMitchell spare parts.

Here's an aircraft that I had in the "unfinished / unsatisfactory" folder for quite a while. It is derived from the Mitchell and I meant it initially as an advanced trainer named the Rookie... but I just couldn't find how to finish it!

I eventually settled for a transport version instead and called it the Battlewagon.