Last spring, we visited the Western Museum of Flight. Today, I was going through some of the photos from our visit and found this one of “Sierra Sue,” a 1953 demonstration aircraft.
Image: Sierra Sue (Click to enlarge)
Here’s what the Western Museum of Flight webpage says about this aircraft:
Built in 1953, the Sierra Sue was Northrop Company’s flying demonstrator for the Air Force’s AX close-support aircraft design competition in 1972. The AX Competition led to the manufacture of two prototypes, Northrop’s A-9A and Fairchild-Hiller’s A-10A. After an extensive flight test program, the Fairchild-Hiller design won the competition.
Designed and flown by Ron Beattie and Walt Fellers, the aircraft was manufactured by Acme’s (Sierradyne Inc.) Crawford and Keeney. It was used by Sierradyne in the ’60s to test and promote Northrop’s and Dr Werner Pfenninger’s boundary layer control concepts. The plane was never officially considered a Northrop aircraft.
Manufacturer Acme Aircraft Co ( Sierradyne Inc) Number Built 1 Wing Span 20 feet 2 inches Overall Length 18 feet Empty Weight 590 pounds Number of Seats 2 Power plant 85 hp Continental C-85 pusher
